Rewriting

Polytropic Identities

in the Postmodern African American Novel

Chapter VII

“Tell Nannan I Walked”

Reconstructing Manhood in Ernest J. Gaines’

A Lesson Before Dying

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot (McKay 1997, 984)).

The major conflict in my work is when the black male attempts to go beyond the line that is drawn for him. But you’ve also got conflict between young and old, between the desire to go back to the place where you were born or to stay where you are, between religious feeling and atheism… There has to be conflict before there can be a story and before the story reveals racial tensions (Gaines, in Magnier 1995, 6).

“A White-Defined Heroism:” Beyond Assumptions

Dispossessions: Native Son’s “Unfinished Quest”

The Teacher’s “Lesson:” Ethics and Freedom

“A Myth of Success:” Rethinking Ellison

The Community’s “Lesson:” Heroic Redemption

Jefferson’s Notebook: “Humanity Masked with Blackness”