Race, work, and desire in American literature, 1860-1930

"Race, Work, and Desire analyzes the literary representations of work relationships across the color line from the mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Michele Birnbaum examines interracial bonds in fiction and literary correspondence by black and white authors and artists - including Elizabeth Keckley, Frances E.W. Harper, W.D. Howells, Grace King, Kate Chopin, Langston Hughes, Amy Spingarn and Carl Van Vechten - exploring the way servants and employers, doctors and patients, and patrons and artists negotiate their racial differences for artistic and political ends. Situating these relationships in literary and cultural context, Birnbaum argues that the literature reveals the complexity of cross-racial relations in the workplace, which, although often represented as an oasis of racial harmony, is in fact the very site where race politics are most fiercely engaged. This study productively complicates current debates about cross-racial collaboration in American literary and race studies, and will be of interest to scholars in both literary and cultural studies."--Jacket.

Year

2009

Language

English

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Editions

4

Pages

208

ISBN

9780521120197

Data source: Wikidata