Whiteness in the Novels of Charles W. Chesnutt by Matthew Wilson.
Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932), critically acclaimed for his novels,
short stories, and essays, was one of the most ambitious and influential
African American writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Today recognized as a major innovator of American fiction,
Chesnutt is an important contributor to de-romanticizing trends in
post-Civil War southern literature, and a singular voice among
turn-of-the-century realists who wrote about race in American life.
Whiteness in the Novels of Charles W. Chesnutt is the first study to
focus exclusively on Chesnutt's novels. Examining the three published in
Chesnutt's lifetime-The House Behind the Cedars, The Marrow of
Tradition, and The Colonel's Dream-as well as his posthumously published
novels, this study explores the dilemma of a black writer who wrote
primarily for a white audience. Throughout, Matthew Wilson analyzes the
ways in which Chesnutt crafted narratives for his white readership and
focuses on how he attempted to infiltrate and manipulate the feelings
and convictions of that audience. Wilson pays close attention to the
genres in which Chesnutt was working and also to the social and
historical context of the novels. In articulating the development of
Chesnutt's career, Wilson shows how Chesnutt's views on race evolved. By
the end of his career, he felt that racial differences were not
genetically inherent, but social constructions based on our background
and upbringing. Finally, the book closely examines Chesnutt's
unpublished manuscripts that did not deal with race. Even in these
works, in which African Americans are only minor characters, Wilson
finds Chesnutt engaged with the conundrum of race, and reveals him as
one of America's most significant writers on the subject. Matthew Wilson
is a professor of humanities and writing at Penn State University,
Harrisburg.
