Richard Wright's Native Son: A Routledge Study Guide Routledge Guides To Literature

Richard Wright's Native Son is a controversial and revolutionary novel that explores themes of crime and racism in American society. Published in 1940, it remains a source of disagreement within African-American culture and beyond. This Routledge Study Guide provides an introduction to the text and its contexts, a critical history of its interpretations, and a selection of reprinted critical essays by authors such as James Baldwin and Hazel Rowley. It also includes a chronology and suggestions for further reading. Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this guide is essential for those beginning to study Native Son and seeking a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material surrounding the novel.

Richard Wrights Native Son (1940) is one of the most violent and revolutionary works in the American canon. Controversial and compelling, its account of crime and racism remain the source of profound disagreement both within African-American culture and throughout the world. This guide to Wright's provocative novel offers:

• an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Native Son
• a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present
• a selection of reprinted critical essays on Native Son, by James Baldwin, Hazel Rowley, Antony Dawahare, Claire Eby and James Smethurst, providing a range of perspectives on the novel and extending the coverage of key critical approaches identified in the survey section
• a chronology to help place the novel in its historical context
• suggestions for further reading.

Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Native Son and seeking not only a guide to the novel, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Wright's text.