Synopses & Reviews
In 1953 African-American poet Langston Hughes began corresponding with several South African writers variously affiliated with the legendary Drum magazine. Published here for the first time, these letters provide an invaluable glimpse into the growing repression of South African apartheid and the slow but painful progress of the American Civil Rights movement. Revealing a fascinating set of transatlantic friendships between a titan of American letters and a group of writers that includes Peter Clarke, Todd Matshikiza, Bloke Modisane, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Peter Abrahams, and Richard Rive, this volume highlights Hughess enormous influence on the rise of English-language literature by black and mixed-race writers in South Africa.
Review
“This is an intriguing and invaluable book. Graham and Walters have unearthed a trove of correspondence which, for many years to come, will be a touchstone for scholars of African-American and African literatures and cultures. The book offers a moving account of the emergence of a transnational dynamic of encouragement and practical support among African diasporic writers.”—Rob Nixon, Rachel Carson Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Synopsis
This collection combines previously unpublished letters between Langston Hughes and South African writers of the 1950s and 1960s with scholarly commentary.
Synopsis
This book answers recent calls in criticism and theory to examine the influence of genre on contemporary Asian American literary production. Drawing on cultural theories of representation, social theories of identity, and poststructuralist genre theory, this study shows how popular prose fictions have severely constrained the development of Asian American literary aesthetics.
Synopsis
This collection combines previously unpublished letters between African-American poet Langston Hughes and South-African writers of the 1950s and 1960s with scholarly commentary and criticism. The letters tell a fascinating story of the civil rights movement and apartheid and the struggle to overthrow it.
About the Author
Shane Graham is Associate Professor of English at Utah State University and the author of South African Literature after the Truth Commission: Mapping Loss (Palgrave 2009). John Walters is a graduate student at Indiana University, where he is an Associate Instructor in the English Department.
Table of Contents
Introduction: “Come On Here!” * Bibliography/Further Reading * 1953-1954 * 1955-1959 * 1960-1961 * 1962 * 1963-1967