Brian Russell Roberts is Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University and the author of
Keith Foulcher is Honorary Associate in the Department of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney and the coeditor of
Brian Russell Roberts is Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University and the author of
Keith Foulcher is Honorary Associate in the Department of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney and the coeditor of
Beb Vuyk’s “H. Creekmore and Protest Novels” (1955)
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Published:March 2016
Vuyk’s November 1955 review of The Chain in the Heart by Hubert Creekmore extends the Indonesian engagement with the theme of protest literature, which Wright had raised in his Indonesian lectures. Mistakenly identifying Creekmore as an African American writer, Vuyk characterizes his novel as an inferior imitation of Wright’s “inspirational” Black Boy and Native Son, suggesting that Creekmore wrote The Chain in the Heart primarily to make money, in response to the popularity of protest novels by African American writers. Drawing on the work of Wright’s fellow African American literary exiles in Paris, Richard Gibson and James Baldwin, Vuyk distinguishes between literary work that emerges from the depths of a writer’s humanity and work that is contrived. While Wright’s works are highly individual in their conception, Creekmore’s novel is a commercial product, written according to the “successful novel” formula.
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