Greater "Truth" in Fiction: a Study of Four Black Writers (Johnson; Florida, Hughes; Missouri, Hurston; Florida, Wright; Mississippi).

Abstract

Four twentieth-century black American writers--James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright--wrote autobiographies presumably depicting various circumstances in their lives. However, there is the question of just how accurate those depictions are. It must be considered that often, an autobiographer has other motives besides mere recapitulation of the truth. Moreover, even if pure recapitulation of facts is the major aim of the writer, the very nature of depicting oneself for public view presents difficulties. Therefore, it is essential to analyze other sources. Each of those writers has been the object of biographical study. Yet just as crucial is the fact that each of the writers wrote outst and ing works of fiction. Much is gained from a study of how those authors conceived the characters and circumstances in what have come to be regarded as fictional masterpieces. The fiction conveys much about aspects of life that concerned the writers most. In fact, interestingly enough, we learn through the fiction a great deal about who those individual writers really were, perhaps even more than is revealed in either of the two other genres.