Charles Johnson in Context - 9781558497238

Selzer (English, Pennsylvania State University) takes an interdisciplinary approach to the work of African-American novelist Charles Johnson, author of the award-winning novel Middle Passage, placing it within a broad historical context and analyzing the intellectual and cultural influences on Johnson. In addition to Middle Passage, Selzer focuses on three other novels: Faith and the Good Thing, Oxherding Tale, and Dreamer. She shows how these works reflect Johnson's participation in the larger cultural projects of several significant but often overlooked groups--young black philosophers who challenged the dominant Anglo-American empiricist tradition during the 1960s and 1970s; black Buddhists of the post-civil rights era who sought to translate an ancient religious practice into an African-American idiom; and black public intellectuals who attempted to revive a cosmopolitan social ethic during the 1990s. The cultural histories of each of these groups, Selzer argues, provide important contexts for understanding Johnson's evolution as a novelist. A few b&w photos and illustrations are included. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)