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. According to the
, 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.