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Article: Charles Chesnutt's "The Dumb Witness" and the culture of segregation.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- African American Review
- Article date:
- March 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 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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In 1897, when Charles Chesnutt composed "The Dumb Witness," he was returning to the literary form--his conjure tales"--that had won him his earliest successes. That literary return was likely bittersweet for Chesnutt, because while it led directly to the publication of his first book--The Conjure Woman--it also meant working again in a genre about which Chesnutt felt ambivalent. In 1889, after publishing the first four conjure tales, he was already expressing his impatience with this form: "I think I have about used up the old Negro who serves as mouthpiece, and I shall drop him in future stories, as well as much of the dialect" ("To Be an Author" 44-45). Chesnutt's ...