num_pages: 91
description: An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race—and promises to change the way we read American literature — from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winnerMorrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree --and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires. According to the Chicago Tribune , Morrison "reimagines and remaps the possibility of America." Her brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature.
language: English
title: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
titlecomplete: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
genres: Social Justice, Feminism, Literary Criticism, Criticism, Race, African American, Writing, Essays, Nonfiction, Theory
ratings_count: 6570
series: The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies
publisher: Vintage