Dissects writings by Baldwin, Morrison on black male protagonists
A WSU professor’s new book exploring the successes of black males in literature recently won the 2018 Award for Creative Scholarship, announced at the College Language Association (CLA) annual convention banquet.
Aaron Oforlea, associate professor at WSU, published his book, “James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and the Rhetorics of Black Male Subjectivity,” in 2017.
The book is a dissection of multiple writings by prominent black authors James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, he said.
In his writing, he explored how the two writers conceptualized the challenges their black male characters navigated throughout their books, Oforlea said.
“I wanted to know, intellectual curiosity, I guess, what helps us be successful,” he said. “How black men, specifically how these fictional characters, are imagined to be successful by these authors.”