Fall 2010 - University of Illinois Press

Black Studies / Literary Studies
American Literature / Political Science
Freud Upside Down
African American Literature and
Psychoanalytic Culture
Badia Sahar Ahad
A salient take on psychoanalysis as a cultural
phenomenon, intersecting with African American
literature
“An innovative and meaningful
addition to recent scholarship
on race and psychoanalysis.
Badia Sahar Ahad’s work
makes a significant historical
and theoretical contribution to
the study of race, psychoanalysis,
African American literature,
and American culture.”
—Gwen S. Bergner, author
of Taboo Subjects: Sex and
Psychoanalysis
This thought-provoking cultural
history explores how psychoanalytic theories shaped the
works of important African American literary figures. Badia
Sahar Ahad details how Nella Larsen, Richard Wright,
Jean Toomer, Ralph Ellison, Adrienne Kennedy, and Danzy
Senna employed psychoanalytic
terms and conceptual models to challenge notions
of race and racism in twentieth-century America.
Freud Upside Down explores the relationship between these
authors and intellectuals and the psychoanalytic movement
emerging in the United States over the course of the twentieth
century. Examining how psychoanalysis has functioned
as a cultural phenomenon within African American literary
intellectual communities since the 1920s, Ahad lays out the
historiography of the intersections between African American
literature and psychoanalysis and considers the creative
approaches of African American writers to psychological
thought in their work and their personal lives.
Badia Sahar Ahad is an assistant professor of English at
Loyola University.
A volume in The New Black Studies Series, edited by Darlene
Clark Hine and Dwight A. McBride
Political Writings
Theodore Dreiser
Edited by Jude Davies
The first published collection of the
esteemed novelist’s prolific political works
“Although not formally a political theorist, Dreiser wrote
as a citizen who spent his creative energies observing
the American scene. He was prolific in his field and
influential in his day. This is indeed a book whose time
has come. Jude Davies’ commentaries make sense of a
protean writer, exploring Dreiser’s ideas in the context of
the dynamics of his historical moment.”
—James L. W. West III, general editor of the Cambridge
Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Theodore Dreiser staked his reputation on fearless expression
in his fiction, but he never was more outspoken
than when writing about American politics. Spanning
a period in American history from the Progressive Era
to the advent of the Cold War, this generous volume
collects Dreiser’s most important political writings from
his journalism, broadsides, speeches, private papers,
and long out-of-print nonfiction books. Touching on the
Great Depression, the New Deal, and both World Wars as
well as Soviet Russia and the persecution of Jews in Nazi
Germany, these writings exemplify Dreiser’s candor and
his penchant for championing the defenseless and railing
against corruption. The works also navigate historical
terrain with prescient observations on topics such as religion,
civil rights, national responsibility, individual ethics,
global relations, and censorship that remain relevant
to a contemporary audience.
Jude Davies is a professor of American literature and culture
at the University of Winchester. He is the coauthor of
Gender, Ethnicity, and Sexuality in Contemporary American
Film and author of numerous articles on Theodore Dreiser
and literary naturalism.
A volume in The Dreiser Edition, edited by Thomas P. Riggio
JANUARY
336 PAGES. 6 x 9.25 INCHES
8 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS
CLOTH, 978-0-252-03585-2. $50.00x £35.00
NOVEMBER
216 PAGES. 6 x 9 INCHES
5 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS
CLOTH, 978-0-252-03566-1. $40.00s £27.99
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