Struggles Over the Word: Race and Religion in O'Connor, Faulkner, Hurston, and WrightMercer University Press, 2000 - 162 pages This literary critical study counters the usual tendency to segregate Southern literature from African American literary studies. Noting that William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor are classified as Southern writers, whereas Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright are considered black authors, Timothy P. Caron argues for an integrated study of the South's literary culture. He shows that the interaction of Southern religion and race binds these four writers together. Caron broadens our understanding of Southern literature to include both white and African American voices. Analyzing O'Connor's Wise Blood, Faulkner's Light in August, Hurston's Moses, Man of the Mountain, and Wright's Uncle Tom's Children, Caron shows that these writers share an intertwined concern for issues of race and religion. These two significant components of Southern culture form the intertextual network that binds together such seemingly disparate texts. These authors not only interact among themselves in acknowledged and unacknowledged ways, but also with the South's discursive practices. Most particularly, Caron sees common struggles over the Word, as he investigates how these writers use the Bible in their understandings of race and religion in the American South. While all four authors argue for the centrality of the Bible in both the black and white Southern experience, each offers a different view of how this iconic text has shaped Southern culture and its literature. |
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Common terms and phrases
African African-American American anagogical Baptist belief Bible biblical hermeneutic biblical interpretation black blood black church Blotner Bright and Morning Christ Christian Christmas's communist community's concerns conjuring CPUSA critics cultural death deliverance Doc Hines dominant religiosity Eatonville editors emphasized Enoch Emery essay evangelical faith Faulkner Flannery O'Connor folklore God's gospel Haze Hazel Motes Hebrews hope-bringer Hurston's Moses Ibid interpretive communities intertextual Israelites Jefferson Jesus Joe Christmas Joe's John liberation Light in August literary lynching Mountain Mulattoes myth of Ham narrative nigger novel O'Connor's fiction Old Testament oppression political preaching Promised Protestant South Protestantism race and religion racist interpretive community readers redemption region's reveal revoices Richard Wright salvation Scriptures slavery slaves social South's racial Southern blacks Southern literature Southern Protestants Southern white spiritual struggle Taylor theology tradition Uncle Tom's Children University Press violence vision white church white South's white South's racist Wise Blood Writing Zora Neale Hurston
References to this book
Racial Blasphemies: Religious Irreverence and Race in American Literature Michael Cobb No preview available - 2004 |