Reading Race - White American Poets and the Racial Discourse in the Twentieth Century (Paperback)

This book examines the work of 20th century white American poets from Carl Sandburg to Adrienne Rich, from Ezra Pound to Allen Ginsberg, revealing within their poetry and casual writings a body of literature that transmits racism, even as it sometimes speaks against it. Tracing the persistence of racial discourse, Aldon Nielsen argues that white Americans, throughout their history, have used a language that treats blacks as an abstract other - an aggregate nonwhite - to be acted upon and determined by whites. White discourse drapes over blacks an intricate veil of images and understandings - assertions of inferiority; metaphors of exoticism; similes of animals; tropes of fertility, nothingness, and death - through which whites read race and beneath which blacks remain imprisoned. Speaking of the discourse of race in America, Nielsen identifies ""dead methphors"" - words, images, ideas - tha toperate in much the same way as the ""charged detail"" of Pound or the ""objective correlative"" of T.S.Elliot. Embedded in the language they are instantly recognizable to the native speaker. Poets, when they draw upon these metaphors, demand racist thinking in order to be understood.

General

Imprint:	University of Georgia Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	August 1990
Authors:	Aldon Lynn Nielsen (Associate Professor of English, San Jose State University, USA)
Dimensions:	230 x 152 x 14mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	192
ISBN-13:	978-0-8203-1273-6
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary studies > From 1900 Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Poetry & poets > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Ethnic studies > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Equal opportunities
LSN:	0-8203-1273-8
Barcode:	9780820312736

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!