    
Steve_s
Veteran Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 381
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 | | Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008 - 02:11 pm: | |
..if Faulkner is such a racist, then how come so many black writers have apparently* been copying, borrowing, and appropriating his stuff for years?
Steve, not saying [Faulkner] was or...wasn't [a racist]--but the two are not mutually exclusive (racism and respect from Blacks). African American artists (and other artists of color) have always had to compartmentalize the White artists that have come before them: recognizing and respecting (and yes, even often emulating) them, while at the same time holding onto their own humanity that these artists may have personally and/or professionally denied.
I love your idea about the imaginary locations with a revolving cast of characters over several books. Add Stephen Carter's two novels to the list (Emperor and New England White).
Yvette, You're correct to point out that [for a white writer like Faulkner?] "racism and respect from Blacks" are not mutually exclusive, however, I was commenting more about influence, albeit in a rather cheeky way.
I think Harold Bloom identified an Oedipal component to literary influence in "The Anxiety of Influence," but I haven't read it or studied literary theory, however, I think there's a certain amount of anxiety associated with artistic influence when it's complicated by ideology or politics (think of art under the Soviets) and race. And I don't think these factors (politics or ideology and race) are mutually exclusive of Oedipal anxiety either. |