Leiter, Andrew B., 1972-
Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, c2010.
Added to CLICnet on 02/20/2014

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Part of the series Southern literary studies;Southern literary studies.
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Introduction: literary renaissance and the interracial sex factor — Sexual victims and black beasts in the nineteenth century — One-drop men in the shadow of the beast: Walter White and James Weldon Johnson — Sexual transgressions and the battle at the racial border: Schuyler’s Black no more and Faulkner’s Light in August — Black beasts and the historical imaginations of Margaret Mitchell and Allen Tate — The end of the chaste icon and the embrace of the beast: Caldwell’s Trouble in July and Wright’s Native son — Conclusion: bigger and the black beast revenge narrative.
• From publisher description: Andrew B. Leiter presents the first book-length study of the sexually violent African American man, or ‘black beast,’ as a composite literary phenomenon. According to Leiter, the black beast theme served as a fundamental link between the Harlem and Southern Renaissances, with writers from both movements exploring its psychological, cultural, and social ramifications. Indeed, Leiter asserts that the two groups consciously engaged one another’s work as they struggled to define roles for black masculinity in a society that viewed the black beast as the raison d’être for segregation.

Subjects:

• American fiction — 20th century — History and criticism.
• African American men in literature.
• African Americans in literature.
• Masculinity in literature.
• African American men — Race identity.
• American fiction — African American authors — History and criticism.
• American fiction — Southern States — History and criticism.
• Harlem Renaissance.

Requested by Wanyama, M & Koehler, B