Paul Laurence Dunbar's The Sport of the Gods: Naturalism, Protest, and Performativity

dc.contributor.advisor Renfroe, Mischa
dc.contributor.advisor Bachman, Maria
dc.contributor.author Williams, Caroline Kimberley
dc.contributor.committeemember Bachman, Maria
dc.contributor.committeemember Renfroe, Mischa
dc.contributor.committeemember Bradley, Patricia
dc.contributor.department English en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2016-12-21T20:27:20Z
dc.date.available 2016-12-21T20:27:20Z
dc.date.issued 2016-11-11
dc.description.abstract Abstract
dc.description.abstract This project seeks to reclaim Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Sport of the Gods (1902) as the first foray of an African American author into protest fiction. Previously, Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940) had been given the honor. Better known for his poetry, Dunbar as a novelist has been critically neglected. Past scholarship centers on his contributions to the plantation and northern migration themes as well as his contribution to dialect poetry. However, in his brief life, he published prophetically despite the racial confines of his time, paving way for later African American novelists to contribute to the naturalist tradition of social protest. This thesis will complicate current readings of the novel by re-examining Dunbar’s version of naturalism in light of social protest fiction as well as race gender performativity.
dc.description.degree M.A.
dc.identifier.uri http://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/handle/mtsu/5179
dc.publisher Middle Tennessee State University
dc.subject Dunbar
dc.subject Gender
dc.subject Naturalism
dc.subject Performativity
dc.subject Protest
dc.subject Race
dc.subject.umi Literature
dc.subject.umi African American studies
dc.subject.umi African literature
dc.thesis.degreegrantor Middle Tennessee State University
dc.thesis.degreelevel Masters
dc.title Paul Laurence Dunbar's The Sport of the Gods: Naturalism, Protest, and Performativity
dc.type Thesis
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