This certainly rings true. I think this way of looking at art is really a cover for philistinism.
Probably the greatest novelist of African descent is the Brazilian writer Machado De Assis. He was a mixed-race man and the grandson of ex-slaves. He lived in 19th century Rio De Janeiro when the institution of slavery was still in effect. He was widely acclaimed in his own lifetime and although he was born poor and had almost no formal schooling, he ascended to the top of Brazilian society and was given a state funeral upon his death.
He wrote two novels that are considered masterpieces. His best work is the novel entitled The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (1881). It is told in the first person by a narrator who is dead. The main character is a nobleman who reflects sardonically on the failures of his life from beyond the grave. You get a very vivid portrait of fin de siecle Rio de Janeiro with its affairs and intrigues, as well as a satirical depiction of the Brazilian political class of Machado's day. It is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that anticipates modernism and the magical realist tradition.
He read many languages and his work is clearly a product of the Western European canon.
He was a committed aesthete who was intent on putting Brazil on the literary world map. The critic Harold Bloom has called him 'the greatest black literary artist to date'. Yet, even a lot of serious readers in the US have never heard of him. I feel fairly certain that if his work was more fiery and polemical in its denunciation of white supremacy, he would be better known in the US. His work is probably too ambiguous, witty and satirical to be of much interest to committed ideologues.
There seem to be hardly any African Americans who have championed his work. The scholar Henry Louis Gates who presented a whole PBS program about 'black Brazil' did not mention him once. Despite the fact that Brazilians consider him to be their finest novelist.
A great many of the American writers and critics who have praised Machado's work in print have actually been Jewish. They include Woody Allen, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Roth, Susan Sontag and Benjamin Moser.
I strongly urge everyone to read him. You will be greatly enriched by the experience and I think that his life is one of the best examples of cream rising to the top.
This certainly rings true. I think this way of looking at art is really a cover for philistinism.
Probably the greatest novelist of African descent is the Brazilian writer Machado De Assis. He was a mixed-race man and the grandson of ex-slaves. He lived in 19th century Rio De Janeiro when the institution of slavery was still in effect. He was widely acclaimed in his own lifetime and although he was born poor and had almost no formal schooling, he ascended to the top of Brazilian society and was given a state funeral upon his death.
He wrote two novels that are considered masterpieces. His best work is the novel entitled The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (1881). It is told in the first person by a narrator who is dead. The main character is a nobleman who reflects sardonically on the failures of his life from beyond the grave. You get a very vivid portrait of fin de siecle Rio de Janeiro with its affairs and intrigues, as well as a satirical depiction of the Brazilian political class of Machado's day. It is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that anticipates modernism and the magical realist tradition.
He read many languages and his work is clearly a product of the Western European canon.
He was a committed aesthete who was intent on putting Brazil on the literary world map. The critic Harold Bloom has called him 'the greatest black literary artist to date'. Yet, even a lot of serious readers in the US have never heard of him. I feel fairly certain that if his work was more fiery and polemical in its denunciation of white supremacy, he would be better known in the US. His work is probably too ambiguous, witty and satirical to be of much interest to committed ideologues.
There seem to be hardly any African Americans who have championed his work. The scholar Henry Louis Gates who presented a whole PBS program about 'black Brazil' did not mention him once. Despite the fact that Brazilians consider him to be their finest novelist.
A great many of the American writers and critics who have praised Machado's work in print have actually been Jewish. They include Woody Allen, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Roth, Susan Sontag and Benjamin Moser.
I strongly urge everyone to read him. You will be greatly enriched by the experience and I think that his life is one of the best examples of cream rising to the top.