The Mississippi Quarterly articles from March 1997

The Mississippi Quarterly archives from March 1997

Editor's comments.
March 22, 1997... Professor Fabre and I conceived of and began some work on this project in 1992. I, anyway, had grandiose schemes of publishing articles from a great many countries all over the world, each of which would honor and elucidate Richard Wright, and...

Richard Wright: the problem of self-identification.(Critical essay)(Character overview)
March 22, 1997... RICHARD WRIGHT HAS BEEN WELL KNOWN IN RUSSIA since the very beginning of his writing career. Translations (and they were very good translations) of Wright's short stories from his first collection, Uncle Tom's Children, were published in the...

Everybody's healing novel: Native Son and its contemporary critical context.(Critical essay)(Character overview)
March 22, 1997... 1. Freedom and Death AFTER NATIVE SON'S ENTHUSIASTIC INITIAL RECEPTION, its critical fate began to change when James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison attacked it in the context of a broader assault on protest literature and the naturalistic...

Mastering the master's tongue: Bigger as oppressor in Richard Wright's Native Son.(Bigger Thomas)(Critical essay)(Character overview)
March 22, 1997... RACIST IDEOLOGY CLAIMS THAT INDIVIDUAL "BEHAVIOR is determined by stable inherited characters deriving from separate racial stocks and usually considered to stand to one another in relations of superiority and inferiority." (1) It is based on...

I wish I had met Richard Wright at Bandung in 1955 (reflections on a conference attended by both Wright and the author).(Asian and African Conference)
March 22, 1997... OVER FORTY YEARS AGO IN APRIL 1955, THE FAMOUS Asian and African Conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia. This was the first time in history that leaders of former colonial or semi-colonial nations in Asia and Africa, including the then...

Rereading The Outsider: double-consciousness and the divided self.(Critical essay)
March 22, 1997... RECENT BRITISH PUBLICATIONS DEALING WITH RICHARD WRIGHT have focused on his postwar work but contrast markedly in assessment of it. James Campbell's Paris Interzone: Richard Wright, Lolita, Boris Vian and Others on the Left Bank 1946-1960 and...

Richard Wright's critical reception in France--censors right and left, negritude intellectuals, the literary set, and the general public.(Critical essay)
March 22, 1997... RICHARD WRIGHT'S REPUTATION AMONG THE FRENCH was not established before World War II as it was in the USSR, starting with the 1938 Russian publication of "Fire and Cloud" by Pravda Editions and of other stories from Uncle Tom's Children in...

Native identity and alienation in Richard Wright's Native Son and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: a cross-cultural analysis.(Critical essay)
March 22, 1997... THIS ESSAY DEALS WITH THE USE OF "NATIVE" IDENTITY and "alienation" as literary themes in Richard Wright's novel Native Son and Chinua Achebe's pioneering African novel Things Fall Apart. I will attempt to examine how society's denial of native...

The critical response in Japan to Richard Wright.(Critical essay)
March 22, 1997... RICHARD WRIGHT WAS INTRODUCED TO THE LITERARY PUBLIC in Japan in 1940 by Moriya Emori, who translated Native Son (Tokyo: Hibonkaku Press). Emori, a leftist poet, was editor-in-chief of The Red Flag [Akahata], an official newspaper for the Japan...

A personal appreciation of Richard Wright's universality.(Critical essay)
March 22, 1997... UNIVERSALITY, ONCE AN ADMIRED ACHIEVEMENT IN AN ARTIST, has been in disrepute lately, or to be more accurate the claim of universality has often been severely questioned or even attacked, primarily because it is alleged that what has been...

Reading contemporary Southern women writers and changing traditions.(A Southern Weave of Women: Fiction of the Contemporary South)(Contemporary Southern Women Fiction Writers: An Annotated Bibliography)(Book review)
March 22, 1997... A Southern Weave of Women: Fiction of the Contemporary South, Linda Tate. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994; Contemporary Southern Women Fiction Writers: An Annotated Bibliography, by Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman and Christopher J....

Black Charlestonians as native sons and daughters.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885, by Bernard E. Powers, Jr. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994, xi, 377 pp. $36.00 AT LAST A HISTORY IN WHICH AFRICAN AMERICANS are not portrayed as victims but rather as...

Ellen Glasgow: New Perspectives.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... Ellen Glasgow: New Perspectives, edited by Dorothy M. Scum. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995. xvii, 251 pp. $35.00. ELLEN GLASGOW: NEW PERSPECTIVES, EDITED by Dorothy M. Scum, does justice to the complexity--the richness--of...

The Savannah River Chiefdoms: Political Change in the Late Prehistoric Southeast.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... The Savannah River Chiefdoms: Political Change in the Late Prehistoric Southeast, by David G. Anderson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1994. 459 pp. $29.95. MANY SPECULATIONS AND THEORIES HAVE BEEN PROPOSED to explain the origins...

The First American Frontier: Transition to Capitalism in Southern Appalachia, 1700-1860.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... The First American Frontier: Transition to Capitalism in Southern Appalachia, 1700-1860, by Wilma A. Dunaway. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xvii, 331 pp. WILMA DUNAWAY BEGINS BY NOTING HER DEBT to "three elderly...

James Glen: From Scottish Provost to Royal Governor of South Carolina.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... James Glen: From Scottish Provost to Royal Governor of South Carolina, by W. Stitt Robinson. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996. $52.95. To M. EUGENE SIRMANS, WHO PUBLISHED the standard history of Colonial South Carolina exactly...

Lee the Soldier.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... Lee the Soldier, edited by Gary W. Gallagher. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1996. xxxv, 620 pp., $45.00. PROFESSOR GARY W. GALLAGHER HERE OFFERS professional and amateur historians alike yet another positive reading of...

Southern Railroad Man: Conductor N.J. Bell's Recollections of the Civil War Era.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... Southern Railroad Man: Conductor N.J. Bell's Recollections of the Civil War Era, edited by James A. Ward. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1994. 194 pp. $25.00. NIMROD J. BELL KNEW HIS BUSINESS. FOR THIRTY-EIGHT years during and...

Moonlight, Magnolias, and Madness: Insanity in South Carolina from the Colonial Period to the Progressive Era.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... Moonlight, Magnolias, and Madness: Insanity in South Carolina from the Colonial Period to the Progressive Era, by Peter McCandless. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xv, 405 pp. $19.95. FOR DECADES THE DISTINCTIVENESS...

The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People, by Kenneth W. Porter. Revised and edited by Alcione M. Amos and Thomas P. Senter. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. xi, 284 pp. $29.95. THIS CHRONICLE OF THE BLACK...

Seminole Burning: A Story of Racial Vengeance.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... Seminole Burning: A Story of Racial Vengeance, by Daniel F. Littlefield. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996. viii, 215 pp. $26.00 cloth. LYNCHING HAS LONG BEEN ONE OF THE MORE SINISTER features of American society. Vigilantism...

Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana: A Biography.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana: A Biography, by Thomas A. Becnel. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. vx, 300 pp. Cloth. $30.00. RECENT DECADES HAVE SEEN THE APPEARANCE OF BIOGRAPHIES dealing with a number of modern...

Across Fortune's Tracks: A Biography of William Rand Kenan, Jr.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... Across Fortune's Tracks: A Biography of William Rand Kenan, Jr., by Walter E. Campbell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996, xvi, 332 pp. $34.95. WILLIAM RAND RENAN, JR.'S LIFE IS LIVING TESTIMONY to the adage that money...

My Remembers: A Black Sharecropper's Recollections of the Depression.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... My Remembers: A Black Sharecropper's Recollections of the Depression, by Eddie Stimpson, Jr. ("Sarge"). Edited by James W. Byrd. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 1996. 167 pp. Index. Illustrations. $18.95 cloth. BORN IN 1929...

The New South: A History of the South, 1945-1980, vol. 11.(Book review)
March 22, 1997... The New South, 1945-1980. A History of the South, Vol. XI, by Numan V. Bartley. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press; The Littlefield Fund for Southern History at the University of Texas, 1995. xvi, 548 pp. $39.95 cloth, $17.95 paper....

A Southern Weave of Women: Fiction of the Contemporary South.
March 22, 1997... Linda Tate. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994. Louis Rubin's The Literary South includes only eight women among its seventy-one authors. Its ranks of contemporary writers include only two women, Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers,...

Contemporary Southern Women Fiction Writers: An Annotated Bibliography.
March 22, 1997... by Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman and Christopher J. Canfield. Magill Bibliographies. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1994. Louis Rubin's The Literary South includes only eight women among its seventy-one authors. Its ranks of contemporary...

Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885.
March 22, 1997... by Bernard E. Powers, Jr. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994, xi, 377 pp. $36.00 At least a history in which African Americans are not portrayed as victims but rather as inventive and industrious people capable of turning...

Ellen Glasgow: New Perspectives.
March 22, 1997... edited by Dorothy M. Scura. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995. xvii, 251 pp. $35.00. Ellen Glasgow. New Perspectives, Edited by Dorothy M. Scura, does justice to the complexity--the richness--of Ellen Glasgow's art. Mainly...

The Savannah River Chiefdoms: Political Change in the Late Prehistoric Southeast.
March 22, 1997... by David G. Anderson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1994. 459 pp. $29.95. Many speculations and theories have been proposed to explain the origins and disappearance of the Mississippian peoples whose ways of life left the Southeast...

The First American Frontier: Transition to Capitalism in Southern Appalachia, 1700-1860.
March 22, 1997... by Wilma A. Dunaway. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xvii, 331 pp. Wilma Dunaway begins by noting her debt to "three elderly Appalachian women," from whom she "learned more... than from all the usual academic inputs...

James Glen: From Scottish Provost to Royal Governor of South Carolina.
March 22, 1997... by W. Stitt Robinson. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996. $52.95. To M. Eugene Sirmans, who published the standard history of Colonial South Carolina exactly thirty years ago, Governor James Glen's "most obvious trait was a...

Lee the Soldier.
March 22, 1997... edited by Gary W. Gallagher. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1996. xxxv, 620 pp., $45.00. Professor Gary W. Gallagher here offers professional and amateur Historians alike yet another positive reading of the military career of...

Southern Railroad Man: Conductor N.J. Bell's Recollections of the Civil War Era.
March 22, 1997... edited by James A. Ward. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1994. 194 pp. $25.00. Nimrod J. Bell knew his business. For thirty-eight years during and after the Civil War, he worked as laborer, conductor, and just about everything else...

Moonlight, Magnolias, and Madness: Insanity in South Carolina from the Colonial Period to the Progressive Era.
March 22, 1997... by Peter McCandless. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xv, 405 pp. $19.95. For decades the distinctiveness of the American South has been a commonplace among historians, who have argued the uniqueness of Southern racial...

The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People.
March 22, 1997... by Kenneth W. Porter. Revised and edited by Alcione M. Amos and Thomas P. Senter. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. xi, 284 pp. $29.95. This chronicle of the black Seminoles' quest for liberty is the result of the collaborative...

Seminole Burning: A Story of Racial Vengeance.
March 22, 1997... by Daniel F. Littlefield. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996. viii, 215 pp. $26.00 cloth. Lynching has long been one of the more sister features of American society. Vigilantism and the frenzied actions of the mob have blighted...

Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana: A Biography.
March 22, 1997... by Thomas A. Becnel. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. vx, 300 pp. Cloth. $30.00. Recent decades have seen the appearance of biographies dealing with a number of modem Louisiana's most important political leaders. Starting...

Across Fortune's Tracks: A Biography of William Rand Kenan, Jr.
March 22, 1997... by Walter E. Campbell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996, xvi, 332 pp. $34.95. William Rand Kenan, Jr.'s life is living testimony to the adage that money does not bring happiness. Walter E. Campbell's thoroughly researched...

My Remembers: A Black Sharecropper's Recollections of the Depression.
March 22, 1997... by Eddie Stimpson, Jr. ("Sarge"). Edited by James W. Byrd. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 1996. 167 pp. Index. Illustrations. $18.95 cloth. Born in 1929 on the eve of the Great Depression, Eddie "Sarge" Stimpson grew up in...

The New South, 1945-1980: A History of the South, vol. 11.
March 22, 1997... by Numan V. Bartley. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press; The Littlefield Fund for Southern History at the University of Texas, 1995. xvi, 548 pp. $39.95 cloth, $17.95 paper. The New South, 1945-1980 by Numan V. Bartley is the recent...