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William Faulkner, Richard Wright, and the Writing of African American Consciousness
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Focusing on Black consciousness in fiction, this essay proposes a mutual influence between William Faulkner and Richard Wright. First comparing Wright’s treatment of Bigger Thomas in Native Son to Faulkner’s treatment of Joe Christmas in Light in August, the essay argues that Wright’s handling of Bigger’s interiority may have contributed to the shift in Faulkner’s career that occurred after 1940, when Faulkner began to represent Black characters more humanely and to approach questions of racial justice more progressively than before. Then turning to the 1940s, the essay shows how Faulkner’s methods of representing Black interiority evolved alongside his awareness of Wright’s works and career. Following the character Lucas Beauchamp from the magazine stories, through Go Down, Moses, to Intruder in the Dust, the essay tracks how Faulkner’s approach to Lucas’s interiority develops in tandem with confluences between Wright’s career and his own.
Title: William Faulkner, Richard Wright, and the Writing of African American Consciousness
Description:
Focusing on Black consciousness in fiction, this essay proposes a mutual influence between William Faulkner and Richard Wright.
First comparing Wright’s treatment of Bigger Thomas in Native Son to Faulkner’s treatment of Joe Christmas in Light in August, the essay argues that Wright’s handling of Bigger’s interiority may have contributed to the shift in Faulkner’s career that occurred after 1940, when Faulkner began to represent Black characters more humanely and to approach questions of racial justice more progressively than before.
Then turning to the 1940s, the essay shows how Faulkner’s methods of representing Black interiority evolved alongside his awareness of Wright’s works and career.
Following the character Lucas Beauchamp from the magazine stories, through Go Down, Moses, to Intruder in the Dust, the essay tracks how Faulkner’s approach to Lucas’s interiority develops in tandem with confluences between Wright’s career and his own.
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