Conversations with Richard Wright

by Keneth Kinnamon (Editor), Michel Fabre (Editor), Richard Wright

For more than two decades, Richard Wright was interviewed by the American and foreign press, first as the author of Uncle Tom's Children (1938), Native Son (1940), and Black Boy (1945), next as a famous expatriate recently arrived and lionized in postwar Paris, and finally as the seasoned writer of a dozen books. At the end of his life, the young man from Mississippi had become a well-traveled intellectual deeply interested in the social and political as well as literary and racial issues of the Old, the New, and the Third World.

Conversations with Richard Wright collects some fifty interviews, many of which are little known in the United States because they appeared in non-English European periodicals and newspapers. This collection reveals a serious, often didactic Wright, giving voice to his inarticulate brothers and sisters as he reveals his racially representative colonialism. Most of his interviewers were white men, and he was always trying to make them listen. European issues also claimed his attention as he struggled to reconcile Marxism, Freudianism, and existentialism to the political realities from 1945 to his death in 1960.

Genres: Biography

276 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1993

Reviews

[Alistair Bascom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conversations with Richard Wright – Edited By Keneth Kinnamon & Michael Fabre
French Translation
Richard Wright était arrivé dans le Paris d'après-guerre et avait écrit de nombreux livres. Vers la fin de sa vie, il a beaucoup voyagé et s'est intéressé aux questions sociales et politiques. Les questions raciales le préoccupaient du nouveau et de l'ancien monde. Cet ouvrage est un recueil d'entretiens. Il est plus connu dans le monde non anglophone des périodiques européens qu'aux États-Unis. Wright exprime les inquiétudes de ses frères et sœurs qui ont été opprimés par le racisme et le colonialisme. La suprématie blanche était un fléau pour l’homme noir aux États-Unis. Il aborde des sujets familiers au public européen, le marxisme, la féodalité et l'existentialisme.
Je lisais un article d’histoire rédigé par un Afro-Américain et il a déclaré : « L’esclavage est de l’existentialisme ». À ce moment-là, j’ai cherché ce qu’était l’existentialisme et j’ai appris ce qu’il était. Après avoir reçu de la méthamphétamine, à mon insu, j'ai souffert de schizophrénie induite par la drogue. Une fois la période schizophrénique terminée, en essayant de comprendre ce qui m'était arrivé, j'ai commencé à lire sur la schizophrénie et la maladie mentale en général. J'ai trouvé l'histoire d'un Afro-Américain qui souffrait de dépression mentale. Il s'est retrouvé en prison, mais pendant son traitement, un de ses médecins lui a suggéré de lire l'existentialisme. Alors, j'ai commencé à lire l'existentialisme et cela m'a aidée à me sentir mieux.
Même si j’ai rencontré des dames riches et que ce frère n’arrêtait pas de me faire maudire et de me menacer, je ne l’ai pas pris en charge, parce que j’étais occupé à lire l’existentialisme puis le nihilisme. J'ai lu Jean-Paul Sartre et Albert Camus. Je pense que la lecture de ces choses a poussé l'extrême que mon esprit pouvait gérer. Donc, après la schizophrénie et tout au long des attaques de ce frère, j’ai pu tout gérer parce que je suis devenu existentialiste. Dans les combats avec ce frère et les autres personnes qui me maudissent et me menacent, je suis devenu nihiliste. Toujours prêt pour la bataille.
English Translation
Richard Wright had arrived in a postwar Paris and wrote many books. Towards the end of his life, he was well-travelled and interested in social and political issues. Racial issues concerned him of the new and old worlds. This work is a collection of interviews. It is more known in the non-English world of European periodicals than in the United States. Wright voices the concerns of his brothers and sisters who have been oppressed by racism and colonialism. White Supremacy was a scourge of the black man in the United States. He discusses topics familiar to European audiences, Marxism, feudalism and existentialism.
I was reading a history paper by an African American and he stated, “Slavery is existentialism.” Right then I searched what existentialism was and learnt about it. After I was given Methamphetamine, without my knowledge, and had drug-induced Schizophrenia. When the Schizophrenic period was over, trying to understand what happened to me, I started to read about Schizophrenia and mental illness in general. I found a story about an African American man who had a mental breakdown, he ended up in jail, but during his treatment, one of his doctors suggested reading existentialism. So, I started reading existentialism and it helped me feel better.
Even while I met the rich ladies and that brother kept getting people to curse and threaten me, I didn’t take him on, because I was busy reading existentialism and then nihilism. I read Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. I think reading these things moved the extremum that my mind could handle. So, after Schizophrenia and throughout that brother’s attacks, I could handle it all because I became an existentialist. In battles with that brother, and the other people that curse and threaten me, I became a nihilist. Always ready for battle.

[يوسف عبداللطيف · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Conversations with Richard Wright (Literary Conversations Series)" by "Keneth Kinnamon" acts like a searchlight on the darker corners of our history and present reality. Every line pulses with defiance against intellectual censorship. Top-tier work from "Keneth Kinnamon".