{"product_id":"richard-wrights-travel-writings-virginia-whatley-smith-9781578069316","title":"Richard Wright's Travel Writings: New Reflections","description":"Attracted to remote lands by his interest in the postcolonial struggle, Richard Wright (1908-1960) became one of the few African Americans of his time to engage in travel writing. He went to emerging nations not as a sightseer but as a student of their cultures, learning the politics and the processes of social transformation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e When Wright fled from the United States in 1946 to live as an expatriate in Paris, he was exposed to intellectual thoughts and challenges that transcended his social and political education in America. Three events broadened his world view--his introduction to French existentialism, the rise of the Pan-Africanist movement to decolonize Africa, and Indonesia's declaration of independence from colonial rule in 1945. During the 1950s as he traveled to emerging nations, his encounters produced four travel narratives--\u003ci\u003eBlack Power\u003c\/i\u003e (1953), \u003ci\u003eThe Color Curtain\u003c\/i\u003e (1956), \u003ci\u003ePagan Spain\u003c\/i\u003e (1956), and \u003ci\u003eWhite Man, Listen! \u003c\/i\u003e(1957). Upon his death in 1960, he left behind an unfinished book on French West Africa, which exists only in notes, outlines, and a draft. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Written by multinational scholars, this collection of essays exploring Wright's travel writings shows how in his hands the genre of travel writing resisted, adapted, or modified the forms and formats practiced by white authors. Enhanced by nine photographs taken by Wright during his travels, the essays focus on each of Wright's four separate narratives as well as upon his unfinished book and reveal how Wright drew on such non-Western influences as the African American slave narrative and Asian literature of protest and resistance. The essays critique Wright's representation of customs and people and employ a broad range of interpretive modes, including the theories of formalism, feminism, and postmodernism, among others. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Wright's travel books are proven to be innovative narratives that laid down the roots of such later genres as postcolonial literature, contemporary travel writing, and resistance literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Virginia Whatley Smith\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1578069319\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781578069316\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Mississippi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/01\/2006\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.84lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.58d","brand":"Virginia Whatley Smith","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44540592619775,"sku":"9781578069316","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_0005fc78-c1fc-47e9-929b-446745497c02.jpg?v=1700588769","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/richard-wrights-travel-writings-virginia-whatley-smith-9781578069316","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}