4. Chesnutt was born in 1858, in Cleveland, Ohio, to free parents of mixed racial
heritage. An excellent student, Chesnutt began teaching at the age of fourteen.
He took over as principal of the school 1880.
Chesnutt studied incessantly, learning several languages and shorthand. In
New York City, he worked briefly as a reporter. In 1883 Chesnutt moved his
family to Cleveland, Ohio. There he worked as a clerk with a railway
company, and also as a stenographer. Chesnutt used this job as an opportunity
to study law, and he passed the Ohio bar exams with the highest marks in his
class in 1887. At the same time, Chesnutt built his own lucrative business.
Although he was light skinned enough to be accepted in white society, Chesnutt
never denied his black ancestry and furthermore was unwilling to accept the
elitism of the rising black and mulatto middle class that was then becoming
established in the North.
Early in the 1880s Chesnutt began to write short stories and, later, novels.
Well-received at first, Chesnutt's works were later criticized for overt didacticism
and the use of socially controversial themes. Though he continued to write
throughout his life, finding a publisher became increasingly difficult. Chesnutt
died on November 15, 1932.
5. Chesnutt was one of the first black Americans to receive critical and
popular attention from the predominantly white literary establishment
and readership of his day, and he was among the first black writers to
be published by a major American magazine and publishing house.
Chesnutt wrote during a time when many of the hopes raised by
emancipation and the Civil War were dispelled as white supremacy was
reasserted in the South, and blacks were consigned to a second class
citizenship not demonstrably better than they had faced as slaves.
His writings about slavery and mulattos living on the “color line”
conveyed implicit denunciations of slavery while appealing to readers of
Plantation School fiction—work by white authors who wrote nostalgically
of the antebellum South.
Chesnutt's short stories were applauded for bringing to readers a
deeper understanding of racial issues. Criticism intensified as he dealt
with issues considered sensitive and controversial for his time, such as
miscegenation. He is recognized and honored as an inaugural American
author who sought to probe the black experience through realist fiction.
6. FILM SCREENING
The Human Stain. Dir. Robert Benton. Perf.
Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed
Harris, and Gary Sinise. Miramax, 2003.
Film.
Based on the novel by Phillip Roth
Screenplay by Nicholas Meyer
106 minutes
7. HOMEWORK
Reading: Chesnutt "The Passing of
Grandison"
Post #7: QHQ Film
Post #8: QHQ "Grandison"
Studying: Terms exam at our next
meeting
