The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man - Couverture souple

Johnson, James Weldon

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 048628512X ISBN 13 : 9780486285122

Editeur : Dover Publications Inc., 2000

Synopsis

One of the most prominent African-Americans of his time, James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a successful lawyer, educator, social reformer, songwriter, and critic. But it was as a poet and novelist that he achieved lasting fame.
Among his most famous works, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man in many ways parallels Johnson's own remarkable life. First published in 1912, the novel relates, through an anonymous narrator, events in the life of an American of mixed ethnicity whose exceptional abilities and ambiguous appearance allow him unusual social mobility -- from the rural South to the urban North and eventually to Europe.
A radical departure from earlier books by black authors, this pioneering work not only probes the psychological aspects of "passing for white" but also examines the American caste and class system. The human drama is powerful and revealing -- from the narrator's persistent battles with personal demons to his firsthand observations of a Southern lynching and the mingling of races in New York's bohemian atmosphere at the turn of the century.
Revolutionary for its time, the Autobiography remains both an unrivaled example of black expression and a major contribution to American literature.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

First published anonymously in 1912, this resolutely unsentimental novel gave many white readers their first glimpse of the double standard -- and double consciousness -- that ruled the lives of black people in modern America. Republished in 1927, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man became a groundbreaking document of Afro-American culture; the first first-person novel ever written by a black, it became an eloquent model for later novelists ranging from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.

Narrated by a man whose light skin enables him to "pass" for white, the novel describes a journey through the strata of black society at the turn of the century -- from a cigar factory in Jacksonville to an elite gambling club in New York, from genteel aristocrats to the musicians who hammered out the rhythms of ragtime. The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man is a complex and moving examination of the question of race and an unsparing look at what it meant to forge an identity as a man in a culture that recognized nothing but color.

Présentation de l'éditeur

James Weldon Johnson's landmark novel is an emotionally gripping and poignant look into race relations. The protagonist, a half-white half-black man of very light complexion, known only as an ex-colored man, makes a choice between his heritage and the art that he loves and the ability to escape the inherent racism that he faces by passing as a white. Because of his knowledge of both cultures he is able to give us startling revaluations into both cultures. A Thrifty Book is a well designed, easy to read book at an unbeatable price.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Dover Publications Inc.
• Date d'édition: 2000
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 048628512X
• ISBN 13: 9780486285122
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 112
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Soc. Agr. La Raia Ss; http://www.la-raia.it; ; Strada Monterotondo, 79; Novi Ligure; 15067; Italie