‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County Jail
This essay first briefly examines African American novelist Chester Himes’ genre-defying position as prison writer turned detective writer, whose influence is clear not only in the usual suspects such as Walter Mosley but also in the Blaxploitation films of the early 1970s, and in the urban fiction...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-01-01
|
| Series: | Humanities |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/12/1/11 |
| _version_ | 1797620671303385088 |
|---|---|
| author | Ed Wiltse |
| author_facet | Ed Wiltse |
| author_sort | Ed Wiltse |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay first briefly examines African American novelist Chester Himes’ genre-defying position as prison writer turned detective writer, whose influence is clear not only in the usual suspects such as Walter Mosley but also in the Blaxploitation films of the early 1970s, and in the urban fiction tradition from Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim on down through today’s Triple Crown books and others. I then look at how Himes’ work has been received by the college students and incarcerated people who each spring for the past 20 years have worked together in reading groups set at the local county jail in a project linked to a class I teach, in order to raise questions about genre, audience and pedagogy. The two groups of readers, who may come to see each other as one group over the series of meetings, often develop readings of Himes’ novel that push back against the analysis I present in the classroom. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:44:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6cf0d965e3f04235b9705a63ce334b9f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0787 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:44:57Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-6cf0d965e3f04235b9705a63ce334b9f2023-11-16T20:51:20ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872023-01-011211110.3390/h12010011‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County JailEd Wiltse0Department of English and Communication, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY 14618, USAThis essay first briefly examines African American novelist Chester Himes’ genre-defying position as prison writer turned detective writer, whose influence is clear not only in the usual suspects such as Walter Mosley but also in the Blaxploitation films of the early 1970s, and in the urban fiction tradition from Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim on down through today’s Triple Crown books and others. I then look at how Himes’ work has been received by the college students and incarcerated people who each spring for the past 20 years have worked together in reading groups set at the local county jail in a project linked to a class I teach, in order to raise questions about genre, audience and pedagogy. The two groups of readers, who may come to see each other as one group over the series of meetings, often develop readings of Himes’ novel that push back against the analysis I present in the classroom.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/12/1/11crime fictiondetective fictionprison educationpedagogy |
| spellingShingle | Ed Wiltse ‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County Jail Humanities crime fiction detective fiction prison education pedagogy |
| title | ‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County Jail |
| title_full | ‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County Jail |
| title_fullStr | ‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County Jail |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County Jail |
| title_short | ‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County Jail |
| title_sort | a whole other world than what i live in reading chester himes on campus and at the county jail |
| topic | crime fiction detective fiction prison education pedagogy |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/12/1/11 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT edwiltse awholeotherworldthanwhatiliveinreadingchesterhimesoncampusandatthecountyjail |