American Protest Essay and National Belonging: Addressing Division

Explores the role of the literary protest essay in addressing social divisions in the United States.

The American Protest Essay and National Belonging uncovers a rich tradition of essays by writers who also serve as spokespersons for American social movements throughout the nation's history. Brian Norman demonstrates that the American protest essay is a distinct form that draws from both the European-born personal essay and American political oratory anchored in social movements. He places celebrated twentieth-century writers like James Baldwin, Vine Deloria Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois, Emma Goldman, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Thomas Pynchon, Adrienne Rich, Gore Vidal, Alice Walker, and Richard Wright among many others in a tradition dating back to the nation's founding. Drawing on feminist and multicultural studies and movements, Norman explains how the protest essay brings particular experiences of exclusion into direct conversation with beliefs in universal equality to offer a story of national belonging that is able to address, rather than repress, division.