​Outside Literary Studies: Black Criticism and the University

Hines, the associate director of the Aydelotte Foundation at Swarthmore College, explores in this astute critical work the rarely discussed challenges to the New Criticism movement faced by Black writers and scholars of the mid-20th century. Hines argues that the movement’s central tenet of judging and analyzing literature without sociopolitical and historical context is a product of “racial liberalism [that] hesitantly accepted some Black people into previously white spaces, but refused to significantly reconfigure those spaces and institutions that allowed racist practice.” Crucially, Hines believes the vestiges of these practices and beliefs remain in place in the university system today. Hines points to Ezra Pound’s winning of the Bollingen Prize after praising Mussolini as an opportunity for Black critics to speak out against the movement’s myopia—as a white man, Pound was showered with prizes despite his politics, a luxury Hines posits is not afforded to Black writers. Elsewhere, Hines highlights the work of Black writers who resisted the New Criticism status quo, such as Melvin B. Tolson, whose poem “Harlem Gallery” contends with the “bifurcated world” of being a Black man in a white literary establishment. Perfect for scholars and students, this provides invaluable insight into the racial dynamics of mid-century literary criticism. (Apr.)