Book contents
- Richard Wright in Context
- Richard Wright in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Richard Wright’s Works: A Chronology
- Introduction Richard Wright’s Luck
- Part I Life and Career, Times and Places
- Part II Social and Cultural Contexts
- Part III Literary and Intellectual Contexts
- Chapter 17 Chicago Sociology
- Chapter 18 1930s Proletarian Fiction
- Chapter 19 The Blues in Print
- Chapter 20 Realism and Modernism, Solipsism and Solidarity
- Chapter 21 The Literary Mainstream: Story and the Book-of-the-Month Club
- Chapter 22 Wright, Psychoanalysis, and Fredric Wertham’s Reading of Hamlet
- Chapter 23 Wright’s Black Boy in Context
- Chapter 24 Wright and Women Authors
- Chapter 25 Existentialism
- Chapter 26 Wright and Les Temps Modernes
- Chapter 27 Wright and Postcolonial Thought
- Chapter 28 Modern Poetry and Haiku
- Part IV Reputation and Critical Reception
- Index
Chapter 25 - Existentialism
from Part III - Literary and Intellectual Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 July 2021
- Richard Wright in Context
- Richard Wright in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Richard Wright’s Works: A Chronology
- Introduction Richard Wright’s Luck
- Part I Life and Career, Times and Places
- Part II Social and Cultural Contexts
- Part III Literary and Intellectual Contexts
- Chapter 17 Chicago Sociology
- Chapter 18 1930s Proletarian Fiction
- Chapter 19 The Blues in Print
- Chapter 20 Realism and Modernism, Solipsism and Solidarity
- Chapter 21 The Literary Mainstream: Story and the Book-of-the-Month Club
- Chapter 22 Wright, Psychoanalysis, and Fredric Wertham’s Reading of Hamlet
- Chapter 23 Wright’s Black Boy in Context
- Chapter 24 Wright and Women Authors
- Chapter 25 Existentialism
- Chapter 26 Wright and Les Temps Modernes
- Chapter 27 Wright and Postcolonial Thought
- Chapter 28 Modern Poetry and Haiku
- Part IV Reputation and Critical Reception
- Index
Summary
Richard Wright’s second novel, The Outsider (1953) was conceived as an exploration of modernity and the human condition, specifically apart from the concerns of race. Wright described it as “the first literary effort of mine projected out of a heart preoccupied with no ideological burden save that of rendering an account of reality as it strikes my sensibilities and imagination.” He further explained that in his attempt to “render my sense of our contemporary living as I see it and feel it … My hero could have been of any race.” This approach led many contemporaneous critics to reject the book. Even more contemporary critics like John M. Reilly have cited Wright’s “extreme existentialism” as evidence of his frustration “with politics consequent to his observation of the opening events of the Cold War in Europe.” These unsettled responses suggest the importance of reconciling Wright’s commitment to racial justice with his philosophical concerns. Existentialism need not exist independent of race for as The Outsider suggests, blackness highlights unique conditions of Sartrean freedom and Kierkegaardian dread. Despite its mixed reception, The Outsider represents an important effort to unite existentialism with the experience of blackness.
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- Richard Wright in Context , pp. 263 - 272Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021