A critical study of black Aesthetics with special reference to selected novels of Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison

Abstract

African American literature has engaged in a dialogue with American letters since the pre-Civil War period. This dialogue has been frequently creative and more frequently contentious. It has produced a body of rich and expressive literature with insight into the American society of its time. From the 1970s until now, African American writers such as Toni Morrison have received acclaim for their works both abroad and at home in the United States. The present study analyses selected works of the three eminent African American authors on whom very little research work seems to have been undertaken through the angle of Black aesthetics. These three authors are Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. The work of the above-mentioned writers is an effort to bring out the central theme of the Black American experience in an unjust society like America (for African Americans) and also to exhibit the prevailing style of contemporary criticism, representation, form, style and sentimentality. The present dissertation also is an attempt to bring out all these elements / factors from the selected writings of the three African-American writers chosen for this study.