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Article: Paul Laurence Dunbar: a credit to his race?
- Article from:
- African American Review
- Article date:
- June 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 African American Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Over the course of the twentieth century, Paul Laurence Dunbar's reputation shifted between that of a "race man" and that of an embarrassment, before progressing to that of a forerunner and trickster, who possessed the dual, if contradictory, qualities of transgression and respectability. Much of this volatility originates in Dunbar's odd dual status as a writer and a symbol, in both popular representation and criticism.
Although Dunbar's works were known among both whites and African Americans while he was alive, his fame peaked after his early death in 1906. In the three decades that followed, many performers, white and Black, enacted public recitations or sang ...