Review by Choice Review
Petesch (University of Pittsburgh) presents an intellectual and historical study of black American literature of the late 19th and 20th centuries. From early slave narratives to works of the first half of the 20th century, Petesch demonstrates how black literature reflects the conditions imposed upon black writers and examines the social consciousness of both races that was emerging in the 20th century. Part 1 of this two-part study establishes the social and historical contexts wherein 19th-century black literature must be placed. Using Frederick Douglass's Narrative to illustrate the black collective consciousness and Thoreau's Walden to illustrate the individualistic white consciousness of the 19th century, Petesch establishes a sharp contrast between the emerging black and the dominant white literature. Part 2 considers the implications of the social and historical contexts for black authors such as Charles W. Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, Wallace Thurman, Nella Larsen, and Jean Toomer. In separate chapters, Petesch examines the works of these authors as illustrative of society's pressures on blacks both to deny their blackness and to take pride in their black heritage. In this context emerged a literature of masking, of self-hatred, of self-denial, of racial confusion, of "passing." Petesch cogently argues that no other major literature has had such an unusual beginning. This work will be valuable for students of black literature and for students of history and cultural diversity. -R. Hearn, Lincoln University (MO)
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
