I did another podcast with my colleague Dan Pechi. It’s a pretty interesting discussion and I urge you guys to listen to it.
An Emphasis on Racial Oppression in The Color Purple
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is one of the most acclaimed and controversial books of African-American literature. Touching on themes of rape, the power of female relationships, and the power of an individual’s voice, the book is narrated by a black woman known as Celie. Although she is not directly discriminated against explicitly throughout the book, it is evident that racism plays a big part throughout the novel. Racial oppression is well evidenced with the situation regarding the mayor’s family and Sofia, Harpo’s wife. Walker writes: Sofia and the prizefighter don’t’ say nothing. Wait for her to pass. Mayor wait too, stand back and tap his foot, watch her with a little smile. Now Millie, he say. Always going on over colored. Miss Millie finger the children some more, finally look at Sofia and the prizefighter. She look at the prizefighter car. She eye Sofia wristwatch. She say to Sofia, All your children so clean, she say, would you like to work for me, be my maid? Sofia say, Hell no. She say, What you say? Sofia say, Hell no. Mayor look at Sofia, push his wife out the way. Stick out his chest. Girl, what you say to Miss Millie? Sofia say, I say, Hell no. He slap her As a result, Sofia ends up fighting with the mayor and becomes imprisoned because she does not want work for the mayor. Furthermore, she is forced to spend her time working as a maid. Although the children are nice to her, Sofia fails to see their generosity and keeps up the facade of racial oppression. One Christmas, Sofia is able to drive to visit her children.Unfortunately,her visit is cut short and she must leave quickly because the mayor’s wife says so. This is further evidence of racial oppression. However, that being said, the oppression that Celie experiences from others. For instance, she experiences oppression from Mr. _________ when he withholds letters from Nettie. She learns to stick up for herself eventually and overcomes this oppression.
The Role of Immediate Family in Identity Formation
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Sula by Toni Morrison are some of the most acclaimed works of African-American literature. Touching on racial and gender themes, each book recounts the story of a female’s search for her identity in an African-American community. The African-American communities on the familial scale significantly impact the establishment and development of the behavioral identities of the protagonists in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Sula by shaping their aspirations and lifestyles. Sula is defined behaviorally by her sexual endeavors and Janie is defined by her obedience.
In Sula, Hannah Peace, the mother of Sula Peace, influences her daughter’s lifestyle with regards to sexual intercourse. The narrator says that Hannah finds sex “pleasant” and sleeps with many men who are “mostly the husbands of her friends and neighbors” after her husband’s death (Morrison). Additionally, the narrator states that Sula would often see her mother going to bed with other men (Morrison). From this, we can discern that she has sex liberally and prefers pleasure over maintaining a clean reputation in both the minds of the townspeople and her own family. Moreover, Hannah dislikes physically sleeping with men because it “implied for her a measure of trust and a definite commitment” to the man, something which she was unwilling to do (Morrison). Essentially, she objectifies men as solely a means by which she can be pleasured.
Sula exhibits the same sexual lifestyle once she comes of age. Upon her return to the Bottom, she has an affair with the husband of her friend Nel without any guilty conscience that her friend was married and had children. In the minds of the townspeople, she is only “trying [the men] out and discarding them without any excuse that the men could swallow” (Morrison). Just like her mother, Sula has sex frequently with husbands of friends and neighbors and does not cling on to a single man for an extended period of time. Moreover, despite the townspeople’s animosity towards her and her actions, she continues her various affairs, thereby displaying her preference to pleasure over an acceptable social reputation (Morrison). Because Sula perceives sexual intercourse like how her mother does, performs the action in a manner similar to her mother, and learned about the
Unlike Sula who derives her behavioral identity from childhood experience, Janie, the protagonist of Their Eyes Were Watching God, derives her obedient and submissive behavioral identity from her family as various situations arise throughout her life. Towards the beginning of the book, her grandmother advises her “to marry off decent” to the industrious farmer Logan Killicks who owns sixty acres (Hurston 13). Although she feels strongly against marrying him and is in love with another man, Johnny Taylor, she puts her grandmother’s desire ahead of her own and marries Logan Killicks (21). In doing so, she satisfies her grandmother.
The same submissiveness is seen whilst living with her various husbands. During her time with her second husband, Jodie Starks, Janie is asked to not converse with men outside the shop and voice her opinions. Even though she enjoys doing so, she puts Jodie’s desires in front of her own. Even when she is with her third husband, Tea Cake, she allows him to “knock her around” and “whup her” when necessary (148). In each of these examples, she acts submissively and obediently to satisfy her husbands.
The behavior of each character primarily defines her relationship with the normative African-American female gender roles. The gender roles include but are not limited to the following: domesticity, obedience to one’s husband and superiors, passiveness, and faithfulness to one’s colored partner who is a woman’s husband. Sula defies these gender roles by having coitus with more than one partner and with “white men” (Morrison). Janie mostly fits these gender roles in by obeying her superiors and husbands and she acts passively. Regardless of how much discontent she feels while living with her first two husbands or when she is beat by her third husband, she fails to actively seek out a happier alternative for her life. Instead, she waits for opportunities to come to her as evidenced by her leaving Logan Killicks for Jody Stark and leaving Eatonville only after several visitations from Tea Cake (Hurston 33; 115). Because the behavior of each character determines each’s gender identity and because each character’s behavior is heavily influenced by her family, one can conclude that one’s immediate family plays a significant role in the establishment of a character’s gender identity.
For decades, sociologists have debated about whether an individual’s innate qualities or their personal experience is more important in determining his or her identity. Although it appears that the establishment and development of Sula’s and Janie’s behavior can be explained through childhood experiences, it is plausible that their behavioral identities are somewhat inherently derived. However, that being said, it is highly unlikely that these innate qualities contribute to a more significant degree than the personal experience to the behavioral identity of each character.
As evidenced by Sula in Sula and Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God, the behavioral and gender identities of an individual are heavily influenced by his or her family. Sula developed her voluptuous behavioral identity by taking after mother. Janie developed her obedient and submissive behavioral identity by conforming to the wishes of each of her husbands. In turn, each character’s gender identity is a direct consequence of their actions and thus their behavioral identity. However, one must still give consideration to the possibility that innate qualities contribute to one’s identity.
The Role of Immediate Family in Identity Formation
This paper examines how gender and behavioral identities are established in African-American communities during the first half of the 21st century. Drawing from Toni Morrison’s Sula and Zora neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, this is a mus read paper for individuals interested in the significant role of immediate family in identity formation.
“SparkNotes” for Martin Luther King Jr.’s “A Time to Break Silence”
Context
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Civil Rights leader during the 50’s and 60’s. This time saw King lead African Americans in the North and South to stand up against the long-standing racism present within American society. King was effective in his efforts due in part to his rhetorical skills, but also due to his belief in non-violent protest. King staged numerous non-violent marches and sit-in’s throughout the South in order to protest the conditions faced by African Americans in the United States.
During the rise of the American Civil Rights movement, a different conflict was arising thousands of miles away in Vietnam where Northern forces were attempting to lead a communist revolution. The United States government’s desire to stop the spread of communism abroad served as the main impetus for American involvement in Vietnam. Over the course of a couple years, American forces found themselves at odd with the Northern Vietcong forces who made use of non-traditional military tactics. This lack of military progress in conjunction with ever-rising mortality rates led many in the United States to question whether the United States really had a place in Vietnam.
Anti-war sentiments raged on in the United States during the late 1960’s, resulting in major protests at Kent State and in Chicago. Many Americans saw no purpose in continuing with a conflict that caused so much damage at home and abroad. It was in the midst of anti-Vietnam protests that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered “A Time to Break Silence.” King’s speech effectively addresses both of these issues: civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Summary
“A Time to Break Silence” primarily concerns Martin Luther King’s views on the Vietnam War. King discusses the beliefs held by other religious figures that they should speak up about the current situation. King describes the misconception that men are to remain loyal to their government in the face of war for patriotism’s sake. He instead suggests that a moral precedent needs to be taken in opposition to the United States’ continued involvement in the war.
King goes on to note that others question his opposition to the war as he is a civil rights leader. In King’s opinion however, the struggle over Vietnam is the same being experienced at home by African Americans. The war took away from other programs that benefited otherwise economically unprivileged African Americans and also filled them with a false sense of hope with regards to the outcome of the war. Additionally, the Vietnam War brought to light the ineffectiveness of violence there and at home as well for King.
King eventually ties the war and the fight for civil rights together by elucidating the practice by which poor blacks are sent to fight in an essentially unwinnable war. He also ties the two together by describing the oppression of the Vietnamese people at the hands of French Imperial forces and then American forces as well. According to King, American involvement in Vietnam has destroyed both the Vietnamese family and village.
The Vietnamese’ view of Americans and American values has thus been forever tainted by the Americans’ destruction of the Vietnamese way of life. King argues that it is only through non-violence that this image can be effectively restored. The North Vietnamese have even been open to forging peace between Americans and themselves, but the US government has seemingly ignored these requests.
King goes on to make the following five demands of the US government:
Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.
Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.
Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.
Four: Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and any future Vietnam government.
Five: Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement.
King’s speech closes with a reflection on the words of John F. Kennedy that imply the United States has turned peaceful revolutions into violent revolutions by attempting to stop them from happening. Instead, the United States needs to have a revolution of its own to pursue the goal of implementing peace in the world. Rather than attempt to quell communism abroad, King suggests the United States take a more active approach towards promoting democracy. It is through such actions that the world will become a more peaceful place.
Themes and Motifs
Arguably the most prominent motif in King’s speech is silence. At the beginning of his speech, King says “there comes a time when silence is betrayal.” He berates the American public for failing to act or speak up about their concerns regarding martial involvement in southeast Asia and cites the government as impetus for street violence. He ultimately says that this silence must be broken if change is to occur and that a course of compassion rather than violence if the Americans are to restore order.
King is a well educated man. Throughout his speech, he makes references to both Vietnamese and Chinese history, two things which were likely unfamiliar to most Americans. He is educated well enough that he can actually quote a Buddhist monk verbatim.
At the end of his speech, King offers a solution for the Vietnam situation: compassion. Compassion, as dictated by many religions, is both non-violence and love. It is a mindset and style of living with which people from all nations can relate.
Major quotations explained
“On a daily basis the war proceeds the hatred rise in the hearts in the Vietnamese along with the hearts of these of humanitarian instinct… Americans are forcing their friends being their enemies… America is incurring deep psychological and political defeat…America won’t again be the picture of revolution, freedom and democracy nevertheless the image of violence and militarism.”
Although this quote appears in King’s speech, King is actually quoting another person, an unnamed Buddhist monk. It is obvious that the monk is picking at the United States’s Interactions with southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. However, this quote does not only speak of American and her relation with the aforementioned region but also the African-American community. The African-American community suffers from “psychological and political defeat,” and because of that “American won’t be the picture of revolution, freedom and democracy nevertheless the image of violence.”
In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:
“O, yes, I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath –
America will be!
Once again, although King proclaims this prose in his speech, the words are not actually his; rather, they are of his predecessor, Langston Hughes. Hughes, one of the best known Harlem Renaissance Poets, wrote these lines in “Let America Be America Again,” a free verse poem which speaks of the non-existent “American dream.” It preaches of America representing freedom and equality to the rest of the world, but those luxuries are only available for a select few on U.S. soil. King uses this quote to speak not only of how the African-American community struggles for freedom, but also to justify his stance on the Vietnam War. He says that the “integrity of America” will be destroyed if she continues fighting State of Vietnam and sending troops to be stationed in southeast Asia. Moreover, the fact that King quotes Hughes shows that he is well read and well informed of African-American literature in a previous era.
Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.
In this quote, King talks as a Christian pastor. Using “Father,” King reconciles his stance with the God’s intentions. It should be noted that King’s audience was not the general public, but rather a group of Christians congregated at Riverside Church in New York City. For that reason, King adapts his speech so that it will be best received by his audience
Suggestions for Further Reading
Martin Luther King, Jr. – “How Long, Not Long”
Martin Luther King, Jr. – “The Other America”
Martin Luther King, Jr. – “Why I am Opposed to the War”
Paul Potter – “Rebels With a Cause”
Lyndon B. Johnson – “Remarks on Signing the Civil Rights Act”
Quiz
- King quotes a Buddhist monk of what subject matter?
Vietnamese/American relations
- What is King’s ultimatum for the U.S.-Vietnam problem?
Nonviolent coexistence or violent coannhilation
- What does King say about silence at the beginning of his speech?
“there comes a time when silence is betrayal”
A Discussion on Slave Narratives, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington
Feminism in Their Eyes Were Watching God
Trudier Harris’s “Celebrating Bigamy and Other Outlaw Behaviors: Hurston, Reputation, and the Problems Inherent in Labeling Janie a Feminist” argues that Janie Crawford, the protagonist of Their Eyes Were Watching God, is not an embodiment of feminism. Basing his argument off the fact that Janie initially wanted what her grandmother wanted in a husband and only leaves her first husband, Logan Killicks, after another man comes along, Harris believes that she exhibits passivity, a characteristic often associated with femininity.
Although it is a bit of a stretch, I would contest that Janie displays the same passivity after the death of her second husband, Jodie. She does not seek out other men, but rather only pursues Tea Cake after he starts to pursue her and confess his desire for her love.
For another opinion, please look here.
Of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois on Education
The abolition of slavery via the Thirteenth Amendment led to a multitude of problems in the South. Freed Blacks needed to find housing and jobs, sentiments of racism increased, and the government lacked a sufficient number of schools and teachers for the newly recognized population. As schools and universities were built and founded in the South and segregation increased, there developed an apparent disparity in the quality of education for blacks and whites and a realization regarding the importance of education for the Black community. Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois both spoke out about this subject in their autobiographies.
Booker T. Washington advocated a more technical education for African-Americans so that they could improve their quality of life. Fully aware that many African Americans wanted to “prepare [themselves] to lift up the people at [their] homes,” Washington felt that the most rational solution to improving the economic status of Blacks was to teach them practical skills through a technical education (“The Struggle for an Education” 513). This education, as opposed to academia, would make African American more likely to be hired into the workforce. Moreover, many technical jobs paid decently, thereby making them appealing for African Americans who wanted the money to improve the quality of life for themselves and their close ones.
Mr. Washington found great value in education of fundamentals of life. Washington claimed “that almost the most valuable lesson [he] got at the Hampton Institute was in the use and value of the bath” on a regular basis (“The Struggle for an Education” 511). By washing one’s body on a regular basis, one is not only maintaining a clean appearance and favorable odor, but one is also self-respecting what he or she has been gifted and is thereby promoting virtue. All three of the aforementioned purposes lead to an improved lifestyle through increased human development both at the physical level of self-care and at the more intellectual level of virtue. In Up from Slavery, Washington implicitly added support to this development on the intellectual level of human development when saying “but out of the hard and unusual struggle through which [the Negro youth] is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race” (“Boyhood Days” 505).
Similar to Mr. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois also believed in inner-development of African-Americans during the educational experience. In “Of the Training of Black Men,” a chapter of The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois states “black men must have respect…and make their loving, living, and doing precious to all human hearts” (665). By respecting others and making their life mission to improve the world with their “loving, living, and doing,” African Americans must be able to look beyond themselves and embody virtue, a characteristic of intellectual development and higher-order thinking (665). Additionally, Du Bois notes that “there must come a loftier respect for the sovereign human soul that seeks to know itself and the world about it” (665). By recognizing the importance of introspection and inquiry, one is developing himself by looking beyond the material-world.
Although Du Bois agrees with Washington on the necessity of human development in the education experience, Du Bois’s greater purpose for education is not to prepare African Americans for the industrial workforce but rather to resolve the issue of racial inequality and ultimately enable Blacks to reach their maximum potential. Du Bois notes that at some point in time, “problems of social advance must inevitably come—problems of work and wages, of families and homes, of morals and the true valuing of things of life” and that the only way to resolve these problems is through “study” or education (664). He goes on to call “half-trained minds and shallow thinking” of African Americans infinitely more dangerous than over-educated and over-refined minds (665). Here, he implies that the extra education will help prevent irrational decision-making and promote a safer, more functional society.
For centuries, ancestors of Africa had been trapped by other races and as a result, they have never had the opportunity to reach their potential. With equality and education, Du Bois says that African-Americans would be able to “evolve that higher individualism that seeks a freedom for expansion,” thereby allowing for new experiences (665). They will be able to draw upon the “rich and bitter depth of their experience” to find “the unknown treasures of their inner life” (665). In turn, these unknown treasures may aid in producing views previously uncontemplated or unseen by the world and subsequent innovation.
Although the overall goals for education of African Americans differ for Du Bois and Washington, a shared commonality between both standpoints is development of the humans. It is possible that these commonalities exist as a result of their Christian beliefs. Christianity dictates how people should live their lives through the Ten Commandments and parables of Jesus, all of which lead to a “better” lifestyle. A possible explanation for their difference in overall goals is their upbringings. Washington, who grew up originally as a slave and later in a poor black family, struggled to gain an education. This struggle likely led him to believe that the best option for free Blacks was to have a technical education so that they make get jobs and live a better life than into which they were born. On the other hand, Du Bois was born in a post-slavery where he was raised in the New England state of Massachusetts. Surrounded by many who treated all races equally, Du Bois saw the potential for people of his color.
Works Cited
DuBois, W.E.B. “Of the Training of Black Men.” Gates and McKay 655-665.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Print.
Washington, Booker. “Boyhood Days.” Gates and McKay 498-505.
Washington, Booker. “The Struggle for an Education.” Gates and McKay 505-513.
Invisible Man: A Faulknerian Masterpiece
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is one of the most acclaimed novels in the genre African-American literature. Although most scholars study Invisible Man for its motifs and extended metaphors regarding the struggles that African-Americans faced in post-slavery America and identity, some choose to analyze it for its writing style. One such scholar was literary critic Robert Boone. In Boone’s commentary on Invisible Man, he suggests that “to the extent that Ellison’s style is directly imitative, it is Faulknerian,” citing both syntax and portrayal of Southern life as commonalities. After examining characteristics of Faulkner’s literature, namely complex sentence structure as well as grotesque portrayal sex in the South, and comparing them to the sentence structure and sex the South as conveyed in Invisible Man, one can deem Ellison’s writing style as Faulknerian.
One of the defining hallmarks of Faulkner’s writing is his complex sentence structure. Unlike his contemporary Ernest Hemingway, Faulkner crafted unnecessarily lengthy sentences which often contained multiple subordinate clauses, colons/semicolons, and/or multiple prepositional phrases. The following sentence from Faulkner’s Light in August showcases all of the aforementioned Faulknerian syntactic and punctuation characteristics:
It halted only long enough to disgorge the two dogs: a thousand costly tons of intricate and curious metal glaring and crashing up and into an almost shocking silence filled with the puny sounds of men, to vomit two gaunt and cringing phantoms whose droopeared and mild faces gazed with sad abjectness about the weary, pale faces of men who had not slept very much since night before last,ringing them about with something terrible and eager and impotent. (120)
When Faulkner was asked about the prolix nature of his writing, he said that the lengthiness served a distinct purpose: “to put the whole history of a human heart on a pin” (Faulkner “Interview by Arthur Davis”). That being said, Faulkner attempted to capture an object’s or person’s complete essence in each moment of a story by getting his past and possibly his future into the instant in which he acts. For example, consider the first sentence of Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”:
WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant–a combined gardener and cook–had seen in at least ten years. (“A Rose for Emily”)
In a few short lines, Faulkner is able to tell the reader the current state of Emily, her past, and provide insight into her relationship with the townspeople. The excess of words serves to overemphasize the fact that his language can bring to light the raw, nameless essence of a character.
Additionally, the complexity of a Faulknerian sentence correlates to the psychological stress an individual is experiencing. In “Barn Burning,” Faulkner’s sentence complexity dramatically increases (starts using more subordinate clauses, participles, and repeated verbs) towards the end as the protagonist, Sarty Snopes, becomes gradually more concerned about his father’s wellbeing (Faulkner Barn Burning 12). To convey the insecurity and stress, Faulkner repeats verbs and increases the number of participle and subordinate clauses in a sentence.
Like Faulkner, Ellison uses lengthy sentences filled with colons/semicolons, subordinate clauses, and prepositional phrases to capture the essence of Invisible Man (IM). For instance, when IM realizes how the day’s events with Mr. Norton to the countryside and the Golden Day had transpired, he states:
I wanted to stop the car and talk with Mr. Norton, to beg his pardon for what he had seen; to plead and show him tears, unashamed tears like those of a child before his parent; to denounce all we’d seen and heard; to assure him that far from being like any of the people we had seen, I hated them, that I believed in the principles of the Founder with all my heart and soul, and that I believed in his own goodness and kindness in extending the hand of his benevolence to helping us poor, ignorant people out of the mire and darkness. (Ellison 77)
Making use of two semi-colons, eight subordinate clauses, and ten prepositional phrases, Ellison is able to portray the subservient, gullible, faceless essence of the IM. The overabundance of words aids in emphasizing the IM’s eloquence and his sentiments of sorrow. Moreover, the complexity of the sentence adds to the psychological stress which the IM is feeling. In the quote above, the IM’s mood becomes increasingly upset up until the point he is lauding the white man and casting himself under a shadow of shame. The sentence manages to reinforce this increased complexity through its increasingly complex word choice and phrasing.
Faulkner’s short stories are known for depicting the grotesque or “irregular” nature of Southern life with regards to sexual life. Essentially, the aforementioned grotesque nature encompasses any sexual relations not between a married couple. In a “Rose for Emily,” Faulkner forms a story about a necrophiliac who fornicates with her deceased husband for years after his death. In Mosquitoes, Faulkner narrates about a four-day excursion on a yacht off the coast of New Orleans which “is a site of sexual masquerade and activities of the sort” (Kartiganer &Abadie 124). Although, Faulkner never explicitly states that such behavior is bad, it can be discerned from other character’s perspective, it is frowned upon.
Ellison too portrays the grotesque nature of sex in the South in Invisible Man. When IM and Mr. Norton hear the life story of Jim Trueblood, they learn of Jim’s dream and one-night stand with his daughter which led to her impregnation (Ellison 32). Jim goes onto to tell of the ramifications of his incestuous relationship with his daughter including estrangement from Southern society. Although Mr. Norton, a Northerner, is compelled to help, the Southern-raised IM fails to pity him labeling his as a “no-good bastard,” showing his contempt towards the man who acted indecently (Ellison 44).
As evidenced by Faulkner and Ellison’s similar sentence structures and portrayal of sex in Southern life, one can lend support to Robert Boone’s conception that Ellison’s writing style in Invisible Man as Faulknerian. Ellison’s mimicry of Faulkner’s writing style is not an anomaly in the world of literature. Ever since the ancient Greeks, writers have adapted each other’s styles for their own purposes. Perhaps, Ellison used Faulkner’s writing style to reach out to a larger audience. Maybe, he used Faulkner’s writing style to emphasize the Invisible Man’s thoughts to the reader.
Bibliography
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, 1947. Print.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” A Rose for Emily. University of Virginia, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.
Faulkner, William . Interview by Arthur Davis. Personal interview. 13 May 1957.
Faulkner, William. Light in August: The Corrected Text. New York: Vintage, 1990. Print.
Kartiganer, Donald M., and Ann J. Abadie. Faulkner and gender. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996. Print.
Norchott-Mahany, Bernard. “Classic Review: Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner.” The Kansas City Public Library. N.p., 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.
Yeezus
I have been studying Kanye West’s Yeezus recently in an attempt to find allusions and parallels between the album and Black Spirituals. I will complete this list/analysis soon and will post it. If there are any other rap albums which you would want me to explore, please comment below.
Image taken from Wikipedia Commons
Black Ink 