Reviews for Eliot, Joyce and Company

The average rating for Eliot, Joyce and Company based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-08-15 00:00:00 Tommy Tucker Aside from concentrating on the three main literary figures, Wall did a commendable job incorporating women musicians and other artistic performers into her story, such as Bessie Smith, Josephine Baker, and Ann Spencer whose inclusion fleshes out the context of the work. Crucially, Wall also illuminated the movement to incorporate folk literature and song into the Harlem Renaissance, which Wintz ignored entirely. While she concentrated her discussion of the folk music and literature in the chapter dedicated to Zora Neale Hurston since Hurston worked to collect much of the material, she wove in snippets of folk works throughout the book giving readers a sense of the themes and flavor. The most compelling aspect of Wall's narrative was how she pulled out an aspect from each of the three female writers' works and lives to illustrate how African American had to overcome racism, sexism, and the enduring stereotypes from slavery, especially of Jezabelle and Mammy. All three women had to navigate blockades from the white society in order to complete their educations, but sometimes as Wall demonstrated through Jessie Redmon Fauset's experience with DuBois, the black intellectual male leaders could be just as constraining and prejudicial as white men, and actively attempted to downplay the accomplishments of African American women and block their pathways to further accomplishments. Nella Larson, thought it necessary to write under a false male name to avoid unwanted harassment and to gain acceptance for her works on their merits alone and not have them judged by her identity. Walls used Larson's story and writings to discuss a painful topic of passing in the African American community - to deny one's black heritage and embrace the idea of being considered white in order to gain the rights available to that group. While Larson decided that passing was not an option for her (she was too dark), her novel Quicksand dissected the minutia of how painful the life could be for the many African Africans who decided to do so, despite having access to what most people would consider a better lifestyle. Hurston's story illustrates the particular difficulties encountered by how to continue using their education. In Hurston's case, in order for her to work in her field, she had to sponsored by a white, female philanthropist who wanted complete ownership of Hurston's findings and control how she used them, which raised the greater question of who can or should own culture. For historians, perhaps the least useful portion of Wall's work is her critiques of the women's books. Wall's critiques at times seem quite harsh, especially in regard to Fauset's works, which she calls "among the least respected." (pg.36)

Review # 2 was written on 2009-01-06 00:00:00 Wayne McGraw Sultan is my hero