Origins of the Dream - Hughes's Poetry and King's Rhetoric (Hardcover)

Since Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, some scholars have privately suspected that King's "dream" was connected to Langston Hughes's poetry. Drawing on archival materials, including notes, correspondence, and marginalia, W. Jason Miller provides a completely original and compelling argument that Hughes's influence on King's rhetoric was, in fact, evident in more than just the one famous speech. King's staff had been wiretapped by J. Edgar Hoover and suffered accusations of communist influence, so quoting or naming the leader of the Harlem Renaissance-who had his own reputation as a communist-would only have intensified the threats against the civil rights activist. Thus, the link was purposefully veiled through careful allusions in King's orations. In Origins of the Dream, Miller lifts that veil and shows how Hughes's revolutionary poetry became a measurable inflection in King's voice. He contends that by employing Hughes's metaphors in his speeches, King negotiated a political climate that sought to silence the poet's subversive voice. By separating Hughes's identity from his poems, King helped the nation unconsciously embrace the incendiary ideas behind his poetry.

General

Imprint:	University Press of Florida
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	2015
First published:	2015
Authors:	W Jason Miller
Dimensions:	235 x 155 x 27mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	336
ISBN-13:	978-0-8130-6044-6
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary studies > From 1900 Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Human rights > Civil rights & citizenship Promotions
LSN:	0-8130-6044-3
Barcode:	9780813060446

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