662 Monstrous Work and Radical Satisfaction - Black Women Writing Under Segregation (with Eve Dunbar) | My Last Book with Deni Kasa

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2024

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Generally speaking, a common conception of U.S. race relations in the mid-twentieth century runs like this: segregation was racist and bad, the doctrine of "separate but equal" masked genuine inequality, and the racial integration brought about by the famous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education was a long-awaited triumph. But is the story as neat as that? What did writers - and in particular Black women writers - think about segregation in the 1930s-1950s? Did they view racial integration as a path to the promised land? Or as yet another false and incomplete promise? How did their writings reflect a resistance to conventional liberal wisdom - and how might their narrative models speak to today's world? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Eve Dunbar about her book Monstrous Work and Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing Under Segregation. PLUS Deni Kasa (The Politics of Grace in Early Modern Literature) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Additional listening: 617 Politics and Grace in Early Modern Literature (with Deni Kasa) | Mike Recommends... James Baldwin! | My Last Book with Carlos Allende 358 The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature (with Farah Jasmine Griffin) | Charles Dickens's Gospel (with Scott Carter) 485 Reading Pleasures - Everyday Black Living in Early America (with Tara A. Bynum) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network and Lit Hub Radio.
0:09.2	This episode is brought to you by Shopify.
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0:51.0	Gb only subject to availability offerance 31st of December. Tims apply see See little.c.c.L.D.K. slash LPTV. for this book was simply monstrous work. Because at the time I began the project, I needed to
1:12.9	think into the boldness, endangerment, loss, and possibility of what it might mean to be a
1:19.5	black woman who refuses to center and do the work of whiteness. What happens to the black woman
1:26.4	who refuses the potential upward mobility,
1:29.8	financial, professional, social, offered by liberal inclusion? It felt monstrous to imagine.
1:38.4	And so I began looking for monstrousness in the works I read. End quote.
1:44.8	That's author Eve Dunbar.
1:47.0	We'll talk to her about this monstrousness
1:49.5	and what she found in the works that she read
1:52.2	by black women authors from the mid-20th century.
1:55.8	Today, on the history of literature.
	...

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