Understanding Colson Whitehead

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Understanding Colson Whitehead

Author : Derek C. Maus
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 1643361759
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (433 download)

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Book Synopsis Understanding Colson Whitehead by : Derek C. Maus

Download or read book Understanding Colson Whitehead written by Derek C. Maus and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2021-04-07 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inviting point of entrance into the truth seeking, genre defying novels of the award-winning author In 2020 Colson Whitehead became the youngest recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Although Whitehead's widely divergent books complicate overarching categorization, Derek C. Maus argues that they are linked by their skepticism toward the ostensible wisdom inherited from past generations and the various forms of "stories" that transmit it. Whitehead, best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Underground Railroad, bids readers to accompany him on challenging, often open-ended literary excursions designed to reexamine—and frequently defy—accepted notions of truth. Understanding Colson Whitehead unravels the parallel structures found within Whitehead's books from his 1999 debut The Intuitionist through 2019's The Nickel Boys, for which he won his second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. By first imitating and then violating their conventions, Whitehead attempts to transcend the limits of the formulas of the genres in which he seems to write. Whitehead similarly tests subject matter, again imitating and then satirizing various forms of conventional wisdom as a means of calling out unexamined, ignored, or malevolent aspects of American culture. Although it is only one of many subjects that Whitehead addresses, race is often central to his work. It serves as a prime example of Whitehead's attempt to prompt his readers into revisiting their assumptions about meanings and values. By upending the literary formulas of the detective novel, the heroic folktale, the coming-of-age story, the zombie apocalypse, the slave narrative, and historical fiction, Whitehead reveals the flaws and shortcomings by which Americans have defined themselves. In addition to evoking such explicitly literary storytelling traditions, Whitehead also directs attention toward other interrelated historical and cultural processes that influence how race, class, gender, education, social status, and other categories of identity determine what an individual supposedly can and cannot do.

Conversations with Colson Whitehead

Author : Derek C. Maus
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496821483
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

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Book Synopsis Conversations with Colson Whitehead by : Derek C. Maus

Download or read book Conversations with Colson Whitehead written by Derek C. Maus and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the publication of his first novel, The Intuitionist, in 1999, Colson Whitehead (b. 1969) has been considered an important new voice in American literature. His seven subsequent books have done little to contradict that initial assessment, especially after 2016’s The Underground Railroad spent many weeks at the top of bestseller lists and won numerous major literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. Ranging from 2001 to 2016, the twenty-three interviews collected in Conversations with Colson Whitehead reveal the workings of one of America’s most idiosyncratic and most successful literary minds. Through these interviews, it is clear that none of this well-earned praise has gone to his head. If anything, he still seems inclined to present himself as an awkward misfit who writes about such offbeat subject matter as rival groups of elevator inspectors, the insufficiency of off-brand “flesh-colored” bandages, or a literalized alternate version of the Underground Railroad. Whitehead speaks at length about matters related to his craft, including his varied literary and nonliterary influences, the particular methods of researching and writing that have proved valuable to telling his stories, and the ways in which he has managed the rollercoaster life of a professional writer. He also opens up about popular culture, particularly the unconventional blend of music, genre fiction, B movies, and comic books that he gleefully identifies as a passion that has persisted for him since his childhood.

Colson Whitehead

Author : Kimberly Fain
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442250143
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Colson Whitehead by : Kimberly Fain

Download or read book Colson Whitehead written by Kimberly Fain and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-05-07 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From his first novel, The Intuitionist, in 1999, Colson Whitehead has produced fiction that brilliantly blurs genre and cultural lines to demonstrate the universal angst and integral bonds shared by all Americans. By neglecting to mention a character’s racial heritage, Whitehead challenges the cultural assumptions of his readers. His African American protagonists are well educated and upwardly mobile and thus lack some of the social angst that is imposed by racial stratification. Despite the critical acclaim and literary awards Whitehead has received, there have been few in-depth examinations of his work. In Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature, Kimberly Fain explores the work of this literary trailblazer, discussing how his novels reconstruct the American identity to be inclusive rather than exclusive and thus broaden the scope of who is considered an American. Whitehead attempts this feat by including African Americans among the class of people who may achieve the American Dream, assuming they are educated and economically mobile. While the conflicts faced by his characters are symptoms of the universal human condition, they assimilate at the expense of cultural alienation and emotional emptiness. In addition to The Intuitionist, Fain also examines John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, The Colossus of New York, Sag Harbor, and Zone One, demonstrating how they bend genre tropes and approach literary motifs from a postracial perspective. Comparing the author to his African American and American literary forebears, as well as examining his literary ambivalence between post-blackness and postracialism, Colson Whitehead offers readers a unique insight to one of the most important authors of the twenty-first century. As such, this book will be of interest to scholars of African American literature, American literature, African American studies, American studies, multicultural studies, gender studies, and literary theory.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Book Analysis)

Author : Bright Summaries
Publisher : BrightSummaries.com
ISBN 13 : 2808018592
Total Pages : 21 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Book Analysis) by : Bright Summaries

Download or read book The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Book Analysis) written by Bright Summaries and published by BrightSummaries.com. This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlock the more straightforward side of The Underground Railroad with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, which follows Cora, a teenage runaway slave, as she travels through America after escaping a cruel owner and a brutal existence on a plantation, pursued all the while by the feared slave catcher Ridgeway. In her escape, she uses a subterranean railway manned by free former slaves and sympathetic whites, making the novel an intriguing reimagining of the real system of safe houses and transport routes in the antebellum USA. The Underground Railroad is Colson Whitehead’s best-known novel, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017. Find out everything you need to know about The Underground Railroad in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Conversations with Colson Whitehead

Author : Derek C. Maus
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781496821492
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (214 download)

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Book Synopsis Conversations with Colson Whitehead by : Derek C. Maus

Download or read book Conversations with Colson Whitehead written by Derek C. Maus and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Since the publication of his first novel, The Intuitionist in 1999, Colson Whitehead (b. 1969) has been considered an important new voice in American literature. His seven subsequent books have done little to contradict that initial assessment, especially after 2016's The Underground Railroad spent numerous weeks at the top of bestseller lists and won numerous major literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. Ranging from 2001 to 2016, the twenty-three interviews collected in Conversations with Colson Whitehead reveal the workings of one of America's most idiosyncratic and most successful literary minds. Through these interviews, it is clear that none of this well-earned praise has gone to his head. If anything, he still seems inclined to present himself as an awkward misfit who writes about such offbeat subject matter as rival groups of elevator inspectors, the insufficiency of off-brand "flesh-colored" bandages, or a literalized alternate version of the Underground Railroad. Whitehead speaks at length about matters related to his craft, including his varied literary and nonliterary influences, the particular methods of researching and writing that have proved valuable to telling his stories, and the ways in which he has managed the rollercoaster life of a professional writer. He also opens up about popular culture, particularly the unconventional blend of music, genre-fiction, B movies, and comic books that he gleefully identifies as a passion that has persisted for him since his childhood." -- Provided by publisher.

The Intuitionist

Author : Colson Whitehead
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0708898483
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis The Intuitionist by : Colson Whitehead

Download or read book The Intuitionist written by Colson Whitehead and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-05-04 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Verticality, architectural and social, is at the heart of Colson Whitehead's first novel that takes place in an unnamed high-rise city that combines twenty-first-century engineering feats with nineteenth-century pork-barrel politics. Elevators are the technological expression of the vertical ideal, and Lila Mae Watson, the city's first black female elevator inspector, is its embattled token of upward mobility.When Number Eleven of the newly completed Fanny Briggs Memorial Building goes into deadly free-fall just hours after Lila Mae has signed off on it, using the controversial 'Intuitionist' method of ascertaining elevator safety, both Intuitionists and Empiricists recognize the set-up, but may be willing to let Lila Mae take the fall in an election year. As Lila Mae strives to exonerate herself in this urgent adventure full of government spies, underworld hit men, and seductive double agents, behind the action, always, is the Idea. Lila Mae's quest is mysteriously entwined with existence of heretofore lost writings by James Fulton, father of Intuitionism, a giant of vertical thought. If she is able to find and reveal his plan for the perfect, next-generation elevator, the city as it now exists may instantly become obsolescent.

Summary Of The Underground Railroad

Author : Scorpio Digital Press
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781079126754
Total Pages : 52 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis Summary Of The Underground Railroad by : Scorpio Digital Press

Download or read book Summary Of The Underground Railroad written by Scorpio Digital Press and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-07 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summary of the Underground Railroad Note to Readers This is a fan-based summary and analysis on The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead. This is meant to enhance your original reading experience, not supplement it. We strongly encourage you to purchase the full text here: The main character of The Underground Railroad is Cora. However, the tale begins with her grandmother, Ajarry, who was captured and sold into slavery as an adolescent. She quickly learns to be submissive and to do what she is told. Ajarry understands that she is only valuable to her owners if she understands her place in the world. This is why Cora originally refuses to escape slavery with Caesar. However, Caesar is persistent. After learning that the plantation is going to a new, harsher master, Cora agrees to hear more about his escape plan - which begins the enthralling tale of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. This summary and analysis touches on every chapter, a detailed analysis of key characters, and much more! Open your mind to the Themes and Motifs present in the original book - we have an entire section dedicated to it in our summary! Enjoy a detailed analysis of key characters that will help you deepen your understanding of the Underground Railroad! Discussion questions geared toward MAKING YOU THINK! Information about Colson Whitehead and other entertaining books he has written! And much more! Scroll to the top and 1-click your purchase today!

Summary

Author : Alpha Minds
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781544227634
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (276 download)

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Book Synopsis Summary by : Alpha Minds

Download or read book Summary written by Alpha Minds and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summary is created for individuals who want to flesh out the essential contents but are too busy to go through the entire book. This book is not intended to replace the original book. Cora is a black slave, who dreamt of living her life in freedom and to look for her mother who abandoned her at young age. One day, she is then approached by another slave named Caesar, while working on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Caesar offered a glimpse of freedom to her. Persistent to get out of bondage, she found her courage and killed someone while escaping. She have gone through a lot and even pretended to be someone else. Colson Whitehead's haunting recapture of the numerous horrors of black slavery in the Southern part of the Americas is visibly featured in his award-winning literary masterpiece "The Underground Railroad", and serves as a conscious message of the white supremacy that existed for decades. Wait no more, take action and get this book now!

The Colossus of New York

Author : Colson Whitehead
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0708898777
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis The Colossus of New York by : Colson Whitehead

Download or read book The Colossus of New York written by Colson Whitehead and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2018-02-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a dazzlingly original work of non-fiction, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Underground Railroad recreates the exuberance, the chaos, the promise, and the heartbreak of New York. Here is a literary love song that will entrance anyone who has lived in - or spent time - in the greatest of American cities. A masterful evocation of the city that never sleeps, The Colossus of New York captures the city's inner and outer landscapes in a series of vignettes, meditations, and personal memories. Colson Whitehead conveys with almost uncanny immediacy the feelings and thoughts of longtime residents and of newcomers who dream of making it their home; of those who have conquered its challenges; and of those who struggle against its cruelties. Whitehead's style is as multilayered and multifarious as New York itself: Switching from third person, to first person, to second person, he weaves individual voices into a jazzy musical composition that perfectly reflects the way we experience the city. There is a funny, knowing riff on what it feels like to arrive in New York for the first time; a lyrical meditation on how the city is transformed by an unexpected rain shower; and a wry look at the ferocious battle that is commuting. The plaintive notes of the lonely and dispossessed resound in one passage, while another captures those magical moments when the city seems to be talking directly to you, inviting you to become one with its rhythms. The Colossus of New York is a remarkable portrait of life in the big city. Ambitious in scope, gemlike in its details, it is at once an unparalleled tribute to New York and the ideal introduction to one of the most exciting writers working today.

The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

Author : Colson Whitehead
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385537085
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (855 download)

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Book Synopsis The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) by : Colson Whitehead

Download or read book The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) written by Colson Whitehead and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. • "One of the most gifted novelists in America today." —NPR When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and “should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best" (Entertainment Weekly). Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!

The Underground Railroad

Author : Colson Whitehead
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0708898416
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis The Underground Railroad by : Colson Whitehead

Download or read book The Underground Railroad written by Colson Whitehead and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2016-08-02 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017 WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD 2017 LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER 2016 AMAZON.COM #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Whitehead is on a roll: the reviews have been sublime' Guardian 'Luminous, furious, wildly inventive' Observer 'Hands down one of the best, if not the best, book I've read this year' Stylist 'Dazzling' New York Review of Books Praised by Barack Obama and an Oprah Book Club Pick, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead won the National Book Award 2016 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood, where it is clear even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they take the perilous decision to escape to the North. In Whitehead's razor-sharp imagining of the antebellum South, the Underground Railroad has assumed a physical form: a dilapidated box car pulled along subterranean tracks by a steam locomotive, picking up fugitives wherever it can. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But its placid surface masks an infernal scheme designed for its unknowing black inhabitants. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher sent to find Cora, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom. At each stop on her journey, Cora encounters a different world. As Whitehead brilliantly recreates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America, from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once the story of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shatteringly powerful meditation on history.

The Nickel Boys

Author : Colson Whitehead
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0708899404
Total Pages : 140 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis The Nickel Boys by : Colson Whitehead

Download or read book The Nickel Boys written by Colson Whitehead and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020 WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2020 Winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction 2020 Time #1 Novel of the Year 2019 ________________________________________________________________________ Author of The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in 1960s Florida. Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide 'physical, intellectual and moral training' which will equip its inmates to become 'honorable and honest men'. In reality, the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse is rife, where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school, and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear 'out back'. Stunned to find himself in this vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr King's ringing assertion, 'Throw us in jail, and we will still love you.' But Elwood's fellow inmate and new friend Turner thinks Elwood is naive and worse; the world is crooked, and the only way to survive is to emulate the cruelty and cynicism of their oppressors. The tension between Elwood's idealism and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision which will have decades-long repercussions. Based on the history of a real reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped and destroyed the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative by a great American novelist whose work is essential to understanding the current reality of the United States. 'If greatness is excellence sustained over time, then without question, Whitehead is one of the greatest of his generation. In fact, figuring his age, acclaim, productivity and consistency, he is one of the greatest American writers alive' Time 'A commanding triumph' Sunday Times 'Every chapter hits its mark' New York Times

Fantastic Cities

Author : Stefan Rabitsch
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496836642
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

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Book Synopsis Fantastic Cities by : Stefan Rabitsch

Download or read book Fantastic Cities written by Stefan Rabitsch and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2022-02-04 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributions by Carl Abbott, Jacob Babb, Marleen S. Barr, Michael Fuchs, John Glover, Stephen Joyce, Sarah Lahm, James McAdams, Cynthia J. Miller, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, Chris Pak, María Isabel Pérez Ramos, Stefan Rabitsch, J. Jesse Ramírez, A. Bowdoin Van Riper, Andrew Wasserman, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, and Robert Yeates Metropolis, Gotham City, Mega-City One, Panem’s Capitol, the Sprawl, Caprica City—American (and Americanized) urban environments have always been a part of the fantastic imagination. Fantastic Cities: American Urban Spaces in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror focuses on the American city as a fantastic geography constrained neither by media nor rigid genre boundaries. Fantastic Cities builds on a mix of theoretical and methodological tools that are drawn from criticism of the fantastic, media studies, cultural studies, American studies, and urban studies. Contributors explore cultural media across many platforms such as Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, the Arkham Asylum video games, the 1935 movie serial The Phantom Empire, Kim Stanley Robinson’s fiction, Colson Whitehead’s novel Zone One, the vampire films Only Lovers Left Alive and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Paolo Bacigalupi’s novel The Water Knife, some of Kenny Scharf’s videos, and Samuel Delany’s classic Dhalgren. Together, the contributions in Fantastic Cities demonstrate that the fantastic is able to “real-ize” that which is normally confined to the abstract, metaphorical, and/or subjective. Consequently, both utopian aspirations for and dystopian anxieties about the American city become literalized in the fantastic city.

Apex Hides the Hurt

Author : Colson Whitehead
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0708898742
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis Apex Hides the Hurt by : Colson Whitehead

Download or read book Apex Hides the Hurt written by Colson Whitehead and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This New York Times Notable Book from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad is a brisk, comic tour de force about identity, history, and the adhesive bandage industry. The town of Winthrop has decided it needs a new name. The resident software millionaire wants to call it New Prospera; the mayor wants to return to the original choice of the founding black settlers; and the town's aristocracy sees no reason to change the name at all. What they need, they realize, is a nomenclature consultant. And, it turns out, the consultant needs them. But in a culture overwhelmed by marketing, the name is everything and our hero's efforts may result in not just a new name for the town but a new and subtler truth about it as well.

Writing Backwards

Author : Alexander Manshel
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231558821
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Writing Backwards by : Alexander Manshel

Download or read book Writing Backwards written by Alexander Manshel and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2023-11-21 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary fiction has never been less contemporary. Midcentury writers tended to set their works in their own moment, but for the last several decades critical acclaim and attention have fixated on historical fiction. This shift is particularly dramatic for writers of color. Even as the literary canon has become more diverse, cultural institutions have celebrated Black, Asian American, Latinx, and Indigenous novelists almost exclusively for their historical fiction. Writing Backwards explores what the dominance of historical fiction in the contemporary canon reveals about American literary culture. Alexander Manshel investigates the most celebrated historical genres—contemporary narratives of slavery, the World War II novel, the multigenerational family saga, immigrant fiction, and the novel of recent history—alongside the literary and academic institutions that have elevated them. He examines novels by writers including Toni Morrison, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Colson Whitehead, Julia Alvarez, Leslie Marmon Silko, Michael Chabon, Julie Otsuka, Yaa Gyasi, Ben Lerner, and Tommy Orange in the context of MFA programs, literary prizes, university syllabi, book clubs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Manshel studies how historical fiction has evolved over the last half century, documenting the formation of the newly inclusive literary canon as well as who and what it still excludes. Offering new insight into how institutions shape literature and the limits of historical memory, Writing Backwards also considers recent challenges to the historical turn in American fiction.

The Underground Railroad (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (National Book Award Winner) (Oprah's Book Club)

Author : Colson Whitehead
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385537042
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (855 download)

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Book Synopsis The Underground Railroad (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (National Book Award Winner) (Oprah's Book Club) by : Colson Whitehead

Download or read book The Underground Railroad (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (National Book Award Winner) (Oprah's Book Club) written by Colson Whitehead and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2016-08-02 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. • The basis for the acclaimed original Amazon Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share. Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!

Reading Race Relationally

Author : Marlon Lieber
Publisher : transcript Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3839463467
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis Reading Race Relationally by : Marlon Lieber

Download or read book Reading Race Relationally written by Marlon Lieber and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2023-04-30 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to write African American literature after the end of legalized segregation? In this study of Colson Whitehead's first six novels, Marlon Lieber argues that this question has permeated the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's writing since his 1999 debut The Intuitionist. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's relational sociology and Marxist critical theory, Lieber shows that Whitehead's oeuvre articulates the tension between the persistent presence of racism and transformations in the United States' class structure, which reveals new modes of abjection. At the same time, Whitehead imagines forms of writing that strive to transcend the histories of domination objectified in social structures and embodied in the form of habitus.