The First American 'Superspy' : Secret Agency and the Black
Nation in Martin R. Delany's Blake

k 2018

The First American 'Superspy' : Secret Agency and the Black Nation in Martin R. Delany's Blake

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan

Základní údaje

Originální název

The First American 'Superspy' : Secret Agency and the Black Nation in Martin R. Delany's Blake

Autoři

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan (840 Spojené státy, garant, domácí)

Vydání

5th International Conference of English and American Studies SILESIAN STUDIES IN ENGLISH — SILSE 2018, 6-7 September 2018, Opava, Czech Republic, 2018

Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Prezentace na konferencích

Obor

60206 Specific literatures

Stát vydavatele

Česká republika

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Odkazy

URL

Kód RIV

RIV/00216224:14210/18:00105749

Organizační jednotka

Filozofická fakulta

Klíčová slova anglicky

Martin R. Delany; Blake or The Huts of America; black nationalism; spy fiction; superspy

Štítky

black nationalism, Blake or The Huts of America, Martin Delany, rivok, spy fiction, superspy

Příznaky

Mezinárodní význam, Recenzováno

Změněno: 3. 2. 2019 20:03, Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D.

Anotace

V originále

The polemical intent and seeming artlessness of Martin R. Delany’s only novel, Blake; Or, the Huts of America, have led critics to treat it mainly in terms of its ideas while disdaining its aesthetics. Simply put, it has been viewed as a novel that is historically important but poorly crafted. There has been considerable confusion even over the basic question of the genre to which it belongs. This presention will suggest that we can better address that problem, and also better understand both Delany’s artistic strategies and what Blake intends to say, by noting its many resemblances to a genre that was only beginning to emerge in Delany’s time: the secret agent or “superspy” tale, which would take shape fully only in the twentieth century in figures like John Buchan’s Richard Hannay and Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Delany’s nonfictional writings preceding Blake had identified black Americans as a “nation within a nation,” but a “broken” one, a nation that as yet was unable to act for itself because it lacked agency and self-awareness. In Blake, Delany offers an imagined solution to this problem by presenting a character who is that (secret) nation’s agent, who brings it into existence through his own performance of its superior virtues, and whose free-ranging exploits, first as a spy and then as commanding general of a secret insurgency, track the efforts of this broken nation to repair and constitute itself in preparation for its revolutionary emergence on the world stage.

Návaznosti

MUNI/A/1003/2017, interní kód MU

Název: Profilace výzkumných zaměření v anglofonní lingvistické a literární vědě III (Akronym: PROVYZAN III)

Investor: Masarykova univerzita, Profilace výzkumných zaměření v anglofonní lingvistické a literární vědě III, DO R. 2020_Kategorie A - Specifický výzkum - Studentské výzkumné projekty

Citovat

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan. The First American 'Superspy' : Secret Agency and the Black Nation in Martin R. Delany's Blake. In 5th International Conference of English and American Studies SILESIAN STUDIES IN ENGLISH — SILSE 2018, 6-7 September 2018, Opava, Czech Republic. 2018.

@proceedings{1488699,
   author = {Smith, Jeffrey Alan},
   booktitle = {5th International Conference of English and American Studies SILESIAN STUDIES IN ENGLISH — SILSE 2018, 6-7 September 2018, Opava, Czech Republic},
   keywords = {Martin R. Delany; Blake or The Huts of America; black nationalism; spy fiction; superspy},
   language = {eng},
   title = {The First American 'Superspy' : Secret Agency and the Black Nation in Martin R. Delany's Blake},
   url = {http://silse.slu.cz/?page=programme},
   year = {2018}
}

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AU  - Smith, Jeffrey Alan
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TI  - The First American 'Superspy' : Secret Agency and the Black Nation in Martin R. Delany's Blake
KW  - Martin R. Delany
KW  - Blake or The Huts of America
KW  - black nationalism
KW  - spy fiction
KW  - superspy
UR  - http://silse.slu.cz/?page=programme
N2  - The polemical intent and seeming artlessness of Martin R. Delany’s only novel, Blake; Or, the Huts of America, have led critics to treat it mainly in terms of its ideas while disdaining its aesthetics. Simply put, it has been viewed as a novel that is historically important but poorly crafted. There has been considerable confusion even over the basic question of the genre to which it belongs. This presention will suggest that we can better address that problem, and also better understand both Delany’s artistic strategies and what Blake intends to say, by noting its many resemblances to a genre that was only beginning to emerge in Delany’s time: the secret agent or “superspy” tale, which would take shape fully only in the twentieth century in figures like John Buchan’s Richard Hannay and Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Delany’s nonfictional writings preceding Blake had identified black Americans as a “nation within a nation,” but a “broken” one, a nation that as yet was unable to act for itself because it lacked agency and self-awareness. In Blake, Delany offers an imagined solution to this problem by presenting a character who is that (secret) nation’s agent, who brings it into existence through his own performance of its superior virtues, and whose free-ranging exploits, first as a spy and then as commanding general of a secret insurgency, track the efforts of this broken nation to repair and constitute itself in preparation for its revolutionary emergence on the world stage.
ER  -

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan. The First American 'Superspy' : Secret Agency and the Black Nation in Martin R. Delany's Blake. In \textit{5th International Conference of English and American Studies SILESIAN STUDIES IN ENGLISH — SILSE 2018, 6-7 September 2018, Opava, Czech Republic}. 2018.

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