New Perspectives on James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

James Weldon Johnson was a writer, educator, songwriter, diplomat, and NAACP executive who exemplified the ideal of the American public intellectual. His novel "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" is a foundational work of twentieth-century African American literature, and its themes and forms have been taken up by other writers. New Perspectives contains fresh essays that analyze the book's reverberations, contexts, aesthetic and intellectual developments, and continuing influence on American literature and global culture.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 260 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2019
Publisher: University of Georgia Press

James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) exemplified the ideal of the American public intellectual as a writer, educator, songwriter, diplomat, key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and first African American executive of the NAACP. Originally published anonymously in 1912, Johnson’s novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is considered one of the foundational works of twentieth-century African American literature, and its themes and forms have been taken up by other writers, from Ralph Ellison to Teju Cole.

Johnson’s novel provocatively engages with political and cultural strains still prevalent in American discourse today, and it remains in print over a century after its initial publication. New Perspectives contains fresh essays that analyze the book’s reverberations, the contexts within which it was created and received, the aesthetic and intellectual developments of its author, and its continuing influence on American literature and global culture.

Contributors: Bruce Barnhart, Lori Brooks, Ben Glaser, Jeff Karem, Daphne Lamothe, Noelle Morrissette, Michael Nowlin, Lawrence J. Oliver, Diana Paulin, Amritjit Singh, Robert B. Stepto.

Weight: 404g
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780820356839