A Drama of the Southwest: The Critical Edition of a Forgotten Play

by Jean Toomer, Carolyn J. Dekker (Editor)

Overview

Jean Toomer (1894–1967) was a modernist writer, a member of the Harlem Renaissance, and briefly part of the literary and artistic community that grew up around Mabel Dodge Luhan in Taos, New Mexico. This book, a critical edition of a previously unpublished 1935 manuscript, makes A Drama of the Southwest available to readers for the first time. The play provides a vivid glimpse into the social world of the artists who mined Taos for creative and spiritual renewal in the early twentieth century, and editor Dekker provides cultural and literary historical context, arguing for Toomer’s continuing creative power and significance at a time in his career that has been largely overlooked by critics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826356390
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	02/29/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	518 KB

About the Author

Jean Toomer (1894–1967) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright. His modernist work Cane was an inspiration for many African American authors.
Carolyn J. Dekker is an assistant professor of English at Finlandia University.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction: Striking Experience in the South and Southwest Jean Toomer 1

A Note on the Text 31

Dramatis Personae 37

A Drama of the Southwest 39

Appendix A Holograph Version of Scene 4 143

Appendix B Fragments from the Holograph 151

Appendix C Toomer's Notes 155

Appendix D Letters from 1934 159

Bibliography 183

Index 187

Editorial Reviews

"Carolyn J. Dekker restores Jean Toomer to his rightful place as a writer who continued to grapple with important issues of region and place, outsider- and insiderness, and gender and cultural politics long after he published his seminal novel, Cane, in 1923."
—Lois Palken Rudnick, author of Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the American Counterculture

From the Publisher