James Baldwin, "Everybody's Protest Novel" Flashcards
What did James Baldwin write?
“Everybody’s Protest Novel”
time period and relevant historical context “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
Published 1949 response to the rise of the “race novel” popularized by Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, took on race-blind view of racism
plot summary “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
Baldwin argues against sentimental race novels or “protest novels” such as UTC as they allow white audiences to feel cartharsis from the act of reading about race instead of taking action and reduce characters to black and white Christian morals where white=good and black=bad
key characters “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
Mentions Eliza and George and Uncle Tom as examples of this racial encoding (Eliza and George proximal to whiteness and good, Tom ‘too black’ redeemed through his relationship with God)
notable formal or stylistic elements “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
Long sentences, uses commas
important themes and recurring motifs “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
Sentimentality is reductive
literary ‘schools’ or genres; analytical concepts; relevance to history “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
Sentimentalism
race novel and protest novel, dramatizes racism through its affects on the characters
2-3 quotation samples “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
other useful hints ID “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
written as an essay
