{"title":"The Dialectics of Barbarous Civilization: Black Transnational Modernism in Claude McKay's Banjo","authors":"Tomohiro Hori","doi":"10.7560/tsll63404","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This essay examines Claude McKay's Banjo in terms of its dialectical critique of civilization. With its radical questioning of the meaning of modernity, McKay's novel of Black life in Marseille aligns with the transnational cultural phenomenon of modernism. Reading Banjo alongside Walter Benjamin's seminal concepts such as the dialectical image reveals how the novel's oft-criticized \"crude realism\" and plotless structure are its integral elements.","PeriodicalId":44154,"journal":{"name":"TEXAS STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE","volume":"63 1","pages":"410 - 433"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"TEXAS STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.7560/tsll63404","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT:This essay examines Claude McKay's Banjo in terms of its dialectical critique of civilization. With its radical questioning of the meaning of modernity, McKay's novel of Black life in Marseille aligns with the transnational cultural phenomenon of modernism. Reading Banjo alongside Walter Benjamin's seminal concepts such as the dialectical image reveals how the novel's oft-criticized "crude realism" and plotless structure are its integral elements.