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Charles W. Chesnutt and the Fictions of Race
Dean McWilliamsThe published canon of Chesnutt's work has doubled in the last decade: three novels completed but unpublished in Chesnutt's life have appeared, as have scholarly editions of Chesnutt's journals, his letters, and his essays. This book is the first to offer chapter-length analyses of each of Chesnutt's six novels. It also devotes three chapters to his short fiction. Previous critics have read Chesnutt's nonfiction as biographical background for his fiction. McWilliams is the first to analyze these nonfiction texts as complex verbal artifacts embodying many of the same tensions and ambiguities found in Chesnutt's stories and novels. The book includes separate chapters on Chesnutt's journal and on his important essay "The Future American." Moreover, Charles W. Chesnutt and the Fictions of Race approaches Chesnutt's writings from the perspective of recent literary theory. To a greater extent than any previous study of Chesnutt, it explores the way his texts interrogate and deconstruct the language and the intellectual constructs we use to organize reality.
The full effect of this new study is to show us how much more of a twentieth-century writer Chesnutt is than has been previously acknowledged. This accomplishment can only hasten his reemergence as one of our most important observers of race in American culture.
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Contents
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Preface
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1. Chesnutt's Language / Language's Chesnutt
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2. Chesnutt in His Journals: "Nigger" under Erasure
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3. "The Future American" and "Chas. Chesnutt"
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4. Black Vernacular in Chesnutt's Short Fiction: "A New School of Literature"
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5. The Julius and John Stories: "The Luscious Scuppernong"
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6. Race in Chesnutt's Short Fiction: The "Line" and the "Web"
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7. Mandy Oxendine: "Is You a Rale Black Man?"
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8. The House behind the Cedars: "Creatures of Our Creation"
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9. The Marrow of Tradition: "The Very Breath of His Nostrils"
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10. The Colonel's Dream: "Sho Would 'a' Be'n a 'Ristocrat"
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11. PaulMarchand, F.M.C.: "F.M.C." and "C.W.C."
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12. The Quarry: "And Not the Hawk"
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Notes
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Bibliography
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Index
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A
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B
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C
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D
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E
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F
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G
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H
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I
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J
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K
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L
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M
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N
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O
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P
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Q
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R
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S
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T
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U
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V
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W
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Y
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Z
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- 9780820327242 (ebook)
- 9780820324357 (hardcover)