No Race, No Country

“Mutnick’s is surely the most comprehensive critical study [of Richard Wright] so far, distinct in its encompassing up-to-date perspectives on Wright’s life and work, a consideration of unpublished manuscripts, and original archival findings.”—Against the Current

“In No Race, No Country, Deborah Mutnick powerfully unearths new detailed research that puts to rest the political and narrow-minded clichés that have dominated the attitudes and critical analyses of Richard Wright’s life and work for at least six decades. The success of this text emerges as no small task. Offering a painstakingly new appraisal of the life-long conjoining of Wright’s iconoclastic Marxist ideology, a serious close reading of his works in the context of his comments on those works, his struggle against racism, and the connection between his national and global political activity, this text emerges as an invaluable resource from which to trace the confluence of Wright’s personal experiences, creative ingenuity as well as his political, ideological, and global commitments. ”With the lyrical voice of an empathetic storyteller who has taken a comprehensive journey through Wright’s life, creative vision, and egalitarian dream, Deborah Mutnick offers a gift that coerces readers and scholars to view Richard Wright as an impassioned augur. After reading No Race, No Country, we have little choice except to revisit anxiously our understanding of Richard Wright’s intellectual prowess and political profundity."—Joyce Ann Joyce, author of Richard Wright’s Art of Tragedy

“A tour de force in historical materialist literary criticism, Deborah Mutnick’s No Race, No Country grounds fresh and compelling readings of Richard Wright’s oeuvre in a deeply dialectical appreciation of the role played by Marxism, communism, and anti-imperialism in both his life and his creative process.”—Barbara Foley, author of Wrestling with the Left: The Making of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

“One of the very best projects on Richard Wright I have ever read.”—James Smethurst, author of Behold the Land: The Black Arts Movement in the South

“Deborah Mutnick has done a masterly job of buttressing recent revisionist scholarship on Wright through her use of new archival material.”—Bill V. Mullen, author of James Baldwin: Living in Fire

“In No Race, No Country, Deborah Mutnick powerfully unearths new detailed research that puts to rest the political and narrow-minded clichés that have dominated the attitudes and critical analyses of Richard Wright’s life and work for at least six decades. The success of this text emerges as no small task. Offering a painstakingly new appraisal of the life-long conjoining of Wright’s iconoclastic Marxist ideology, a serious close reading of his works in the context of his comments on those works, his struggle against racism, and the connection between his national and global political activity, this text emerges as an invaluable resource from which to trace the confluence of Wright’s personal experiences, creative ingenuity as well as his political, ideological, and global commitments. With the lyrical voice of an empathetic storyteller who has taken a comprehensive journey through Wright’s life, creative vision, and egalitarian dream, Deborah Mutnick offers a gift that coerces readers and scholars to view Richard Wright as an impassioned augur. After reading No Race, No Country, we have little choice except to revisit anxiously our understanding of Richard Wright’s intellectual prowess and political profundity.” — Joyce A. Joyce, author of Richard Wright’s Art of Tragedy

“This much-needed book makes a number of impressive contributions. It is certainly the best reading of Wright’s novel The Man Who Lived Underground and the haikus he produced late in his life. In short, I rate this as one of the very best projects on Richard Wright I have ever read.”—James Smethurst, author of Behold the Land: The Black Arts Movement in the South

“A tour de force in historical materialist literary criticism, Deborah Mutnick’s No Race, No Country grounds fresh and compelling readings of Richard Wright’s oeuvre in a deeply dialectical appreciation of the role played by Marxism, communism, and anti-imperialism in both his life and his creative process.” — Barbara Foley, author of Wrestling with the Left: The Politics of Invisible Man