Cultural Entanglements: Langston Hughes and the Rise of African and Caribbean Literature, by Shane Graham

Felix Jean-Louis

doi:10.1163/22134360-09601020

Abstract

Cultural Entanglements: Langston Hughes and the Rise of African and Caribbean Literature, by Shane Graham

Highlights

Cultural Entanglements makes powerful claims about the centrality of Langston Hughes in uniting the literary Afro-descended world in conversation and shaping the definitive contours of African and Caribbean literature
The book is based on deep archival engagement of Hughes’s correspondence, and close readings of letters and texts by him and other writers to reveal the dialogues across three continents that shaped a literary tradition
Graham borrows the concept from Wei Chee Dimok, who first employed the notion in studying transnational literature in an effort to delineate the “tangle of relations” (p. 15)

Summary

Introduction

Cultural Entanglements makes powerful claims about the centrality of Langston Hughes in uniting the literary Afro-descended world in conversation and shaping the definitive contours of African and Caribbean literature. Shane Graham locates Hughes at the forefront of the dialogues and philosophical debates around the quintessential features that should unify the burgeoning genre and the community at large. The book is based on deep archival engagement of Hughes’s correspondence, and close readings of letters and texts by him and other writers to reveal the dialogues across three continents that shaped a literary tradition.

Results

Conclusion