Propaganda as fiction: an explication of the works of Dotson Rader and Shane Stevens

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dc.contributor.advisorIsle, Walter W.en_US
dc.creatorWhitlock, Jerry Michaelen_US
dc.date.accessioned2018-12-18T21:24:30Zen_US
dc.date.available2018-12-18T21:24:30Zen_US
dc.date.issued1973en_US
dc.description.abstractDotson Rader's first book. I Ain't Marchin' Anymore (1969), is a partisan's account of the Columbia University student revolt. Rader's first novel, Gov't Inspected Meat (1971), is autobiographical, but the decade of the '6's and of student dissent looms large in the plot. Shane Stevens shares Rader's interest in the decade of the '6's and in political dissent, but he writes in his two novels about the despair and defiance of the black ghetto and of young black men in particular. Stevens' Go Down Dead (1969) is narrated by a sixteen-year old Harlem gang leader introduced in a violent struggle with a competing white gang and with his now emerging manhood. Way Up Town in Another World (1971) is narrated by Marcus Garvey Black, whose commentary on the American political and racial scene is bitter, acerbic, and largely unconvincing. The writing of Dotson Rader and Shane Stevens possesses one major flaw: the authors' concerns with didactic racial criticism becomes propagandist. Political aims supersede aesthetic considerations in the shaping of the novels. The consequences for the novels and for readers are severe. Technique is less important than the authors' political doctrines. The latter overwhelm character and plot, so that all characters speak with one voice, all plots plod through to a predetermined end. With Rader and Stevens this flaw is debilitating. Their novels cannot profitably be read; the message becomes the medium. Finally, the same propaganda emerges from different novels; the four works are a monotone, a single party line.en_US
dc.format.digitalOriginreformatted digitalen_US
dc.format.extent76 ppen_US
dc.identifier.callnoThesis Engl. 1973 Whitlocken_US
dc.identifier.citationWhitlock, Jerry Michael. "Propaganda as fiction: an explication of the works of Dotson Rader and Shane Stevens." (1973) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/104510">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/104510</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.digitalRICE2145en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/104510en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.titlePropaganda as fiction: an explication of the works of Dotson Rader and Shane Stevensen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentEnglishen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineHumanitiesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelMastersen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen_US
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