TY - BOOK AU - Bergin,Cathy TI - 'Bitter with the past but sweet with the dream: communism in the African American imaginary representations of the Communist Party, 1940-1952 T2 - Historical materialism book series SN - 9789004293250 AV - PS374.N4 B47 2015eb U1 - 813/.509896073 23 PY - 2015/// CY - Leiden, Boston PB - Brill KW - Wright, Richard, KW - Himes, Chester B., KW - Ellison, Ralph KW - Ellison, Ralph. KW - American fiction KW - African American authors KW - History and criticism KW - 20th century KW - Communism and literature KW - United States KW - History KW - Communism in literature KW - Politics in literature KW - African Americans in literature KW - fast KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc N1 - Includes bibliographical references and index; Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1 ‘Towards Soviet America’ -- 2 The Liberator (1929–1935) -- 3 Native Son: Ghetto Nightmares -- 4 ‘Communism is the Twentieth Century Americanism’ -- 5 Lonely Crusade: Union Dues -- 6 Invisible Man: Un-American Activities -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index; Available to subscribing member institutions only N2 - The legacy of the relationship between African American writers and Communism in the US is a contested one. Bergin argues that in three novels, by seminal mid-century authors (Wright, Himes and Ellison) Communism is not dismissed as incapable of meeting the demands of black political identity but is castigated for its refusal to do so. A detailed focus on the political milieu in which these texts operate challenges many of the presumptions about the ‘inability’ of Communism to comprehend racial oppression, which dominate literary critical approaches to these novels. She draws on the complex formations black political agency presumed and reproduced by American Communism during the Depression UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004293250 ER -