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

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

Author: Noelle Morrissette
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 11/15/2019
Pages: 260
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.71lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.65d
ISBN: 9780820356839

About the Author
NOELLE MORRISETTE is an associate professor and class of 1952 distinguished scholar of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is the author of James Weldon Johnson's Modern Soundscapes.