In what ways is African American identity contested in Richard Wright's "The Man Who Was Almost A Man", James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" and William Faulkner's "That Evening Sun"?

Julia Straub

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Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Literature - Comparative Literature, grade: 2,7, Cardiff University, course: English lite...

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Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Literature - Comparative Literature, grade: 2,7, Cardiff University, course: English literature, language: English, abstract: This essay will aim at answering the following questions and it will compare the different representations of African American identity in the three short stories. Is there a difference in the representation of black identity if it is contested by a white writer? The question is if Faulkner's representation of African American identity as a white author is more influenced by stereotypes than Wright's or Baldwin's. Or might some of these stereotypes actually be part of the black identity? For almost two centuries the short story has been part of the American literary tradition. It is one of the most essential literary genres of American culture. But it has been just as important to African American culture. Richard Wright and James Baldwin are two of the most well-known African American short story authors. They represent African American identity and culture in their short stories from the black point of view. William Faulkner, whose story will be analysed in this essay together with the ones of Wright and Baldwin, represents African American identity from a white author's point of view. This essay will look at a variety of ways in which African American identity is contested in three short stories by these three authors. The stories the essay will deal with are Wright's story The Man Who Was Almost a Man, written in 1961, Baldwin's Sonny's Blues from 1957 and William Faulkner's That Evening Sun which was published for the first time in 1931, but also appeared in 1950 which is the version this essay relies on. Black writers have often been "neglected or misread because of their 'race'", as Byerman argues, therefore it is interesting to take a look at the ways black identity is represented and contested in those stories.