Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most popular poets of his day. He was highly regarded for his black dialect poetry, which earned him the title, ?poet laureate of his race.? Dunbar?s second book of poetry, Majors and Minors, was even reviewed by the famous critic William Dean Howells. However, despite Dunbar?s popularity, he has also been widely criticized for his black dialect poetry. Many scholars and African-Americans have argued that it is an unsympathetic portrait of blackness meant to appease his paying white readership. This thesis discusses the conditions and circumstances that influenced Dunbar to write black dialect poetry. It places the poet?s life and career in the social, economic, and critical context of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. My research concludes that Dunbar?s intentions for his dialect poetry were misconstrued by William Dean Howells? racially-biased interpretation of Majors and Minors.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-03272007-140151 |
| Date | 30 April 2007 |
| Creators | Gilroy, Joseph William |
| Contributors | Dr. Anne Baker, Dr. Sheila Smith-McKoy, Dr. Carmine Prioli |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-03272007-140151/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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