Episode 5: Everybody's Protest Novel and the Responsibilities of Art
Jake and Phil talk about the political and social obligations of art. They discuss W.E.B. Du Bois' "Criteria for Negro Art," James Baldwin's famous 1949 essay "Everybody's Protest Novel," and James Thurber's short story, "The Greatest Man in the World."
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Show Notes
Jake and Phil talk about the political and social obligations of art. To set the stage they discuss W.E.B. Du Bois' "Criteria for Negro Art" originally delivered as a speech to the 1926 Conference of the NAACP in Chicago. The main event is a consideration of James Baldwin's famous 1949 essay "Everybody's Protest Novel." For the finale, the gents
talk about James Thurber's 1931 short story, "The Greatest Man in the World."
Other works referenced in this episode:
Paul C. Taylor, Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Black+is+Beautiful%3A+A+Philosophy+of+Black+Aesthetics-p-9781405150620
Ta-Nehisi Coates, I'm Not Black, I'm Kanye
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/05/im-not-black-im-kanye/559763/
Francois Mauriac's Nobel Prize Speech
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1952/mauriac-speech.html
Edward P. Jones, The Known World
https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060557546/the-known-world