The House Where My Soul Lives - The Life of Margaret Walker
Verlag | Oxford University Press |
Auflage | 2023 |
Seiten | 680 |
Format | 17,8 x 5,1 x 23,6 cm |
Gewicht | 1050 g |
Artikeltyp | Englisches Buch |
EAN | 9780195341232 |
Bestell-Nr | 19534123EA |
This biography of poet and writer Margaret Walker takes us inside America in the middle of the 20th century, seen through the eyes of one southern black woman who refused to focus on what was not possible, but what was.
Klappentext:
This first biography of poet and writer Margaret Walker (1915-98) offers a comprehensive close reading of a pillar in American culture for a majority of the 20th century. Without defining herself as a radical or even a feminist, Walker followed the precepts of both. She promoted the idea of the artist of tradition and social change, a public intellectual and an institution builder. Among the first to recognize the impact of black women in literature, Walker became achief architect of what many have called the new Black South Renaissance. Her art was influenced early by Langston Hughes, her political understanding of the world by Richard Wright. Walker expanded both into a comprehensive view on art and humanism, which became a national platform for the centershe founded in Mississippi that now bears her name. The House Where My Soul Lives provides a full account of Walker's life and new interpretations of her writings before and after the publication of her most well-known poem in the 1930s in Chicago. The book rejects the widely held view of Walker as the "angry black woman" and emphasizes what contemporary American culture owes to her decades of foundational work in what we know today as Black Studies, Women's Studies, and the PublicHumanities. She was fierce in her claim to be "black, female and free" which gave her the authority to challenge all hierarchies, no matter at what cost. Featuring 80 archival photos and documents and based on never before examined personal papers and interviews with those who knew Walker personally, this bookis required reading for all readers of biographies of American writers.
Rezension:
Maryemma Graham's long-anticipated biography of Margaret Walker, The House Where My Soul Lives, is a masterpiece of scholarship and writing, exploring the complicated contours of Walker's personal and professional life with a grace that is both accessible and enthralling...The measure of success of any biography and work of history should be how its lessons inform who we are and teach us how to build a better world around us. In this regard, Maryemma Graham has written her magnum opus. Robert Luckett, Margaret Walker Center Professor, Department of History Jackson State University.