Tag Archives: New York Times

Black Philip Roth

March 28, 2014 Not biologically black, of course (though what an “African-American biology” might mean is not entirely clear either). Still, Philip Roth might be said to be partly black — through mediation, association, and, perhaps most of all, contention — … Continue reading

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James Baldwin’s friends

July 31, 2013 Well, at least they went to high school together, that accounts for it: DeWitt Clinton High School, in the north Bronx.   By the time James Baldwin and Richard Avedon brought out Nothing Personal (1964), they’d known … Continue reading

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Junot Diaz, Octavia Butler: Other People’s Books

March 13, 2013 It was 1957 and she was ten.    She had managed to save five dollars, mostly in change,  but still a lot of money.   The public library had been fine up to this point;  now she was … Continue reading

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Unending Katrina: Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun

October 31, 2012 I never made it to the World Humanities Forum, a small story in a big storm. New Orleans and New York: this is the tale of two cities that is now unfolding.   I wish I could say: … Continue reading

Posted in Cities, Climate change, Contemporary novel, Environmentalism, Ethnicity, Genre, Islam, Media, Middle East, oceans, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Toni Morrison, Slade Morrison: More Children’s Books

September 12, 2012 Toni Morrison also had trouble with publishers.   At least she managed to get it in print — The Big Box, the first of several coauthored with her son Slade, first appeared in Ms. Magazine in 1980 and, … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Children's literature, collaboration, Contemporary novel, Educational institutions, Genre, literary magazaines, Newspapers, print medium, Publishers, Race, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Gore Vidal (1925-2012): 2006 Letter on the Palestinian nation.

August 1, 2012 Gore Vidal’s passing is marked worldwide by a citational frenzy: all those quips, those acidic one-liners, from the past 86 years.  The New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, all have their favorites; the Guardian … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Afro-Asian alliances, Arabic, collaboration, Comparative literature, Ethnicity, globe, Islam, Letters, Middle East, Newspapers, Nobel Prize, peripheral networks, print medium, Racial violence, Twentieth century literature, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Tender is the Translation

June 20, 2012 Because of my online lectures on Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner, I’ve been getting inquiries about these authors from Asia, Europe, South America – many viewers of the Open Yale Courses are outside the US. This week I … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Arabic, Asia, Brazil, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Global South, Latin America, Media, Middle East, Portuguese, print medium, Publishers, Translation, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments