Playing in the Dark Whiteness and the Literary Imagination

<b>An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race—and <b>promises to change the way we read American literature<b>—</b>from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner</b></b><br><br>Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly <i>unfree</i>--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires. According to the <i>Chicago Tribune</i>, Morrison "reimagines and remaps the possibility of America." Her brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. <br><br>Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, <i>Playing in the Dark</i> is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature.