Playing in the Dark
Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · July 27, 1993
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race—and promises to change the way we read American literature—from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner "[Morrison] boldly...reimagines and remaps the possibility of America."—Chicago Tribune Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.
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- Genres
- Black Lit Crit, American Lit Crit, Race & Discrimination
- Published
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, July 27, 1993
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Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: Race & Discrimination.
QuicksandNella Larsen54% match
Origin of OthersToni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates67% matchAlso shares Black Lit Crit
The MessageTa-Nehisi Coates59% match
Begin AgainEddie S. Glaude Jr.57% match
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin62% match
For younger readers: How I Discovered Poetry, A Sitting in St. James, Now Is Your Time!
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race—and promises to change the way we read American literature—from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner "[Morrison] boldly...reimagines and remaps the possibility of America."—Chicago Tribune Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.
Continue reading
According to the Chicago Tribune, 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. Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature.
Sharp-Lensed Critique
Come here for
- Toni Morrison’s crisp, searching criticism
- A compact, layered conversation-starter
Expect
- Serious prose, not academic fog
- Plenty to circle back to
Where it sits
| Black Lit Crit | 95% |
|---|---|
| Race & Discrimination | 23% |
| American Lit Crit | 21% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- American Lit Crit
- Black Lit Crit
- African American Studies
- Authors
- Toni Morrison
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Published
- July 27, 1993
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- American Lit Crit