Politics and the Black Writer

FAIN: FB-10496-70

Donald B. Gibson
Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8559)

Study to determine the relation between the political perspectives of black writers and a) the conceptions of the nature and function of literature and b) their attitudes toward formal aspects of literature. Black writers who write with the notion that their writing will not necessarily have social utility are almost always politically conservative or moderate in questions involving the racial issue, while those who write with the notion that their work is intended to serve a social function are generally radical on questions involving race and are less concerned with the formal aspects of literature.