{"product_id":"real-and-imagined-worlds-claude-mckays-poetry-and-prose-9781496860392","title":"Real and Imagined Worlds: Claude McKay's Poetry and Prose","description":"Claude McKay (1890-1948) was a versatile Jamaican American writer and poet and a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In addition to two autobiographies and a documentary study of Harlem, McKay wrote poetry, novels (\u003ci\u003eHome to Harlem\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBanana Bottom\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBanjo\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHarlem Glory\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAmiable with Big Teeth\u003c\/i\u003e--the latter portraying a dystopia that foreshadows Orwell), the short story collection \u003ci\u003eGingertown\u003c\/i\u003e, and a screenplay disguised as a novel, \u003ci\u003eRomance in Marseille.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e McKay was deeply influenced by various literary and artistic sources that shaped his poetry and prose. As an artist, he saw himself as a \"classicist,\" but his favorite poet was John Keats, the acclaimed Romantic. The books he read in the library of his mentor Walter Jekyll were primarily Victorian and had a profound influence on him. However, the artists he encountered after he left Jamaica were mostly all modernists: Charlie Chaplin, D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Ernest Hemingway. Popular culture also inspired him, especially the cinematic traditions of both Hollywood and Europe. These dual influences reflected his complicated intellectual and artistic life. \u003ci\u003eReal and Imagined Worlds: Claude McKay's Poetry and Prose \u003c\/i\u003eattempts to make sense of the poet's deep engagement with the literary and artistic influences that inspired his own writing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharles Scruggs\u003c\/b\u003e is professor emeritus of American literature at the University of Arizona. He is author of four books and published articles on Charles Chesnutt, Jean Toomer, Jessie Fauset, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, John Fowles, Raymond Chandler, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift, and on American film noir.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Press of Mississippi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51864329715986,"sku":"9781496860392","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_2a9fa023-43ac-4594-933f-5e28639cb4be.jpg?v=1767785368","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/real-and-imagined-worlds-claude-mckays-poetry-and-prose-9781496860392","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}