Richard Wright's Native Son A Routledge Study Guide [Paperback]

Richard Wrights Native Son(1940) is one of the most violent and revolutionary works in the American canon. Controversial and compelling, its account of crime and racism remain the source of profound disagreement both within African-American culture and throughout the world.

This guide to Wright's provocative novel offers:

• an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Native Son
• a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present
• a selection of reprinted critical essays on Native Son, by James Baldwin, Hazel Rowley, Antony Dawahare, Claire Eby and James Smethurst, providing a range of perspectives on the novel and extending the coverage of key critical approaches identified in the survey section
• a chronology to help place the novel in its historical context
• suggestions for further reading.

Part of the Routledge Guides to Literatureseries, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Native Sonand seeking not only a guide to the novel, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Wright's text.

Introduction  Part 1: Texts and Contexts  Richard Wright: A Brief Biography.  The Voices of Native Son.  The Dostoevskian Voice.  The Transplantation of the Blues.  Biggers Vernacular Voice.  Social Determinism: An Anti-American Accent?  Bigger: Silenced by Whiteness?  Chronology  Part 2: Critical History  First Responses: James Baldwin.  First Responses: Ralph Ellison and Irving Howe.  Feminist Readings.  The Black AtlanlC"