Uncle Tom : from martyr to traitor

Resource Information

The work Uncle Tom : from martyr to traitor represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of San Diego Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Uncle Tom : from martyr to traitor

Title remainder

from martyr to traitor

Statement of responsibility

Adena Spingarn

Creator

• Spingarn, Adena, 1981-

Author

• Spingarn, Adena, 1981-

Subject

• American literature -- Social aspects
• American literature -- Social aspects | History
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Ethnische Beziehungen
• History
• Literatur
• Literature -- Adaptations
• Race relations
• Racism
• Racism -- United States -- History
• Rezeption
• Sklave
• Stereotyp
• African Americans in literature
• Stereotypes (Social psychology) in literature -- History
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896 -- Adaptations | History and criticism
• USA
• Uncle Tom's cabin (Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
• Uncle Tom, (Fictitious character)
• Uncle Tom, (Fictitious character)
• United States
• United States -- Race relations | History
• Stereotypes (Social psychology) in literature
• African Americans in literature -- History

Genre

• History
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Language

eng

Summary

This book charts the cultural transformation of perhaps the most controversial literary character in American history. From his origins as the heroic, Christ-like protagonist of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom has become an epithet for a black person deemed so subservient to whites that he betrays his race. Readers have long noted that Stowe's character is not the traitorous sycophant that his name connotes today. The author traces his evolution in the American imagination. We learn of the radical political potential of the novel's many theatrical spinoffs even in the Jim Crow era, Uncle Tom's breezy disavowal by prominent voices of the Harlem Renaissance, and a developing critique of "Uncle Tom roles" in Hollywood. Within the stubborn American binary of black and white, citizens have used this rhetorical figure to debate the boundaries of racial difference and the legacy of slavery. Through Uncle Tom, black Americans have disputed various strategies for racial progress and defined the most desirable and harmful images of black personhood in literature and popular culture

Cataloging source

CSt/DLC

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

PS2954.U6

LC item number

S67 2018

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography