Category Archives: African-American literature
Nonsecular: William Faulkner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison
April 19, 2014 Toni Morrison says in a Paris Review interview: “I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark—it must be dark—and then I drink the coffee and watch the light come.” … Continue reading
Malcolm X’s Reading
April 3, 2014 I’m always a little suspicious when people make a big point about what books they’ve read, when they throw around big name like Schopenhauer, Kant, Nietzsche. But Malcolm is pretty scrupulous. Of Herodotus, he writes: “I … Continue reading
Banjo: Pete Seeger, Claude McKay
January 29, 2014 Of course he played the guitar as well, maybe even primarily the guitar, but I’ll always think of him with a banjo, that humble instrument brought over by the slaves, its simple form cradled in his, looking … Continue reading
Equiano’s Turkey
November 28, 2013 Yes, according to Mark Forsyth, the Thanksgiving bird is named after a country 4429 miles away. But not the first to be so named. In fact, the original turkey was a guinea fowl from Madagascar, brought to … Continue reading
Faulkner’s Harlem Renaissance
November 20, 2013 This past week I was teaching Nella Larsen’s Quicksand and Passing. I’d never assigned them before, but they couldn’t have been better — for my “Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner” class. How else to contextualize Light in August? Not … Continue reading
Writers getting old: Ashbery, Angelou, Morrison
November 13, 2013 I was standing at the very back, and saw only a wall of people in front. I’d also missed the introduction. For most of reading, all I got was the voice, surprisingly strong, vigorous, the voice … Continue reading