Bibliography Addition
Posted on September 11, 2013 | No Comments
2011
Sollors, Werner. “Obligations to Negroes who would be kin if they were not Negro.” Daedalus 140.1 (2011): 142+
Academic OneFile. Web 25 Mar. 2013
New radio documentary on Native Son
Posted on September 6, 2013 | No Comments
Studio 360 presents a radio documentary on Native Son, the first to air in a series on American Icons.
American Icons: Native Son
http://www.studio360.org/2013/sep/06/
From Studio 360:
This is the novel about racism that America couldn’t ignore.
The story of a young man in the ghetto who turns to murder was an overnight sensation. Richard Wright set out to confront white readers with the most brutal consequences of racism, and finally lay to rest the stereotype of the passive Uncle Tom — “he literally wanted to create a bigger Thomas,” one scholar argues. But some think Native Son exploited the worst stereotypes of black youth. “Is this giving me permission to go kill white women?” wondered a young Carl Hancock Rux. “Is that what we’re supposed to be doing now?”
We trace the line from Bigger Thomas to Notorious B.I.G., and visit a high school drama class acting out Native Son, and struggling to grasp the racism their grandparents experienced. With Nathan McCall, Carl Hancock Rux, and Richard Wright’s daughter, Julia Wright.
Note for Richard Wright’s 105th Birthday
Posted on September 6, 2013 | No Comments
In 1942, the psychologist Fredrick Wertham sent Richard Wright two verses, one on January 15 and the other on May 27. The haunting lines of the first
Where men have always looked around
and searched for secrets never found,
You saw a vision, dark, profound;
You heard beneath a distant sound;
You took the lid off the Underground.
are illuminated by the second verse entitled Underground
The Freudians talk about the Id
And bring it below
But Richard Wright took off the lid
And let us see the woe
It is likely that the only works by Wright that Wertham might have read before 1942 were Uncle Tom’s Children, Native Son, and 12 Million Black Voices. His insights about Wright’s intellectual acumen are germane in discussions of Wright’s fiction and non-fiction. Like William Blake, Wright was a visionary, one who exposed deep recesses of human consciousness. One is not surprised that he discovered quite early that Freudian theory might conceal as much as it reveals. Pulling off the lid and urging people to ponder material and mental damages was Wright’s forte.
On September 4, 2013, I celebrate the presence and power of Richard Wright’s mind.
Jerry W. Ward, Jr.
Note for the note: Wertham’s correspondence with Wright is contained in the Wright Papers, JWJ Mss 3, Box 108, Folder 1677 at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.