The Postwar African American Novel: Protest and Discontent, 1945-1950 (Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies)

203 Pages·2011·0.9 MB·English

by  Stephanie Brown

The Postwar African American Novel
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THE POSTWAR
AFRICAN AMERICAN NOVEL
Protest and Discontent, 1945–1950
Stephanie Brown
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of
the Association of American University Presses.
“‘If I Can Only Get It Funny!’: Chester Himes’s Parodic Protest Novels” first appeared, in
somewhat altered form, in Invisible Suburbs: Recovering Protest Fiction in the 1950s United
States, edited by Josh Lukin (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008).
Copyright © 2011 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2011
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Stephanie, 1970–
The postwar African American novel : protest and discontent, 1945–1950 / Stephanie
Brown.
p. cm. — (Margaret Walker Alexander series in African American studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60473-973-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60473-974-9 (ebook)
1. American fiction—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. American
fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 3. Protest literature, American—History
and criticism. 4. African Americans in literature. 5. Discontent in literature. I. Title.
PS153.N5B677 2011
813’.5409896073—dc22 2010036027
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
To Stephen, Virginia, and Clara,
without whose help, patience and forbearance
this project could never have been completed.
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Contents
3 Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
7 Beyond Protest: Retracing the Margins of the Postwar African American Novel
CHAPTERTWO
41 “If I Can Only Get It Funny!”: Chester Himes’s Parodic Protest Novels
CHAPTERTHREE
67 Frank Yerby and the “Costume Drama” of Southern Historiography
CHAPTER FOUR
99 William Gardner Smith and the Cosmopolitan War Novel
CHAPTER FIVE
132 J. Saunders Redding and the African American Campus Novel
161 Conclusion
165 Notes
173 Works Cited
187 Index
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The Postwar African American Novel