Socialist Joy in the Writing of Langston Hughes by Jonathan Scott

by Jonathan Scott

Jonathan Scott has written the first book-length study to analyze the extraordinary range of Langston Hughes's creative output. Offering a robust account of the relations between Hughes and political activism, Scott shows that Hughes's direct involvement with the U.S. socialist movement of the 1920s and '30s was largely responsible for the variety of his writing. Scott also contends that the goal of overthrowing white oppression produced a "socialist joy" that would express itself repeatedly in Hughes's work during the anticommunist crusades of the 1950s and '60s. As Scott persuasively argues, it is only through an understanding of Hughes's literary method that we can undertake a thorough account of his prolific production during the cold war era.

Hardcover

First published December 30, 2006