Author: Darryl Dickson-Carr Spoofing the Modern is the first book devoted solely to studying the role satire played in the movement known as the New Negro, or Harlem, Renaissance from 1919 to 1940. As the first era in which African American writers and artists enjoyed frequent access to and publicity from major New Yorkbased presses, the Harlem Renaissance helped the talents, concerns, and criticisms of African Americans to reach a wider audience in the 1920s and 1930s. These writers and artists joined a growing chorus of modernity that frequently resonated in the caustic timbre of biting satire and parody. The Harlem Renaissance was simultaneously the first major African American literary movement of the twentieth century and the first major blooming of satire by African Americans. Such authors as folklorist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, poet Langston Hughes, journalist George S. Schuyler, writer-editor-poet Wallace Thurman, physician Rudolph Fisher, and artist Richard Bruce Nugent found satire an attractive means to criticize not only American racism, but also the trials of American culture careening toward modernity. Frequently, they directed their satiric barbs toward each other, lampooning the painful processes through which African American artists struggled with modernity, often defined by fads and superficial understandings of culture. Dickson-Carr argues that these satirists provided the Harlem Renaissance with much of its most incisive cultural criticism. The book opens by analyzing the historical, political, and cultural circumstances that allowed for the New Negro in general and African American satire in particular to flourish in the 1920s. Each subsequent chapter then introduces the major satirists within the larger movement by placing each authors career in a broader cultural context, including those authors who shared similar views. Spoofing the Modern concludes with an overview that demonstrates how Harlem Renaissance authors influenced later cultural and literary movements.

Author: Steven Cahn This book is recommended for anyone interested in understanding, questioning, articulating, and acting on the basis of their own and others' perspectives on sexism, racism, and affirmative action in American higher education. aChoice While equal opportunity for all candidates is widely recognized as a goal within academia, the implementation of specific procedures to achieve equality has resulted in vehement disputes regarding both the means and ends. To encourage a reexamination of this issue, Cahn asked three prominent American social philosophersaLeslie Pickering Francis, Robert L. Simon, and Lawrence C. Beckerawho hold divergent views about affirmative action, to write extended essays presenting their views. Twenty-two other philosophers then respond to these three principal essays. While no consensus is reached, the resulting clash of reasoned judgments will serve to revitalize the issues raised by affirmative action. Contents Introduction a Steven M. Cahn Part I 1. In Defense of Affirmative Action a Leslie Pickering Francis 2. Affirmative Action and the University: Faculty Appointment and Preferential Treatment a Robert L. Simon 3. Affirmative Action and Faculty Appointments a Lawrence C. Becker Part II 4. What Good Am I? a Laurence Thomas 5. Who Counts on Campus? a Ann Hartle 6. Reflections on Affirmative Action in Academia a Robert G. Turnbull 7. The Injustice of Strong Affirmative Action a John Kekes 8. Preferential Treatment Versus Purported Meritocratic Rights a Richard J. Arneson 9. Faculties as Civil Societies: A Misleading Model for Affirmative Action a Jeffrie G. Murphy 10. Facing Facts and Responsibilities a The White Man's Burden and the Burden of Proof a Karen Hanson 11. Affirmative Action: Relevant Knowledge and Relevant Ignorance a Joel J. Kupperman 12. Remarks on Affirmative Action a Andrew Oldenquist 13. Affirmative Action and the Multicultural Ideal a Philip L. Quinn 14. Affirmative Action in the Cultural Wars a Frederick A. Olafson 15. Quotas by Any Name: Some Problems of Affirmative Action in Faculty Appointments a Tom L. Beauchamp 16. Are Quotas Sometimes Justified? a James Rachels 17. Proportional Representation of Women and Minorities a Celia Wolf-Devine 18. An Ecological Concept of Diversity a La Verne Shelton 19. Careers Open to Talent a Ellen Frankel Paul 20. Some Sceptical Doubts a Alasdair MacIntyre 21. Affirmative Action and Tenure Decisions a Richard T. De George 22. Affirmative Action and the Awarding of Tenure a Peter J. Markie 23. The Case for Preferential Treatment a James P. Sterba 24. Saying What We Think a Fred Sommers 25. Comments on Compromise and Affirmative Action a Alan H. Goldman About the Authors Index About the Author(s) Steven M. Cahn is Professor of Philosophy and former Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has published numerous other books, including Morality, Responsibility, and the University (Temple). Contributors: Laurence Thomas, Ann Hartle, Robert G. Turnbull, John Kekes, Richard J. Arneson, Jeffrie G. Murphy, Karen Hanson, Joel J. Kupperman, Andrew Oldenquist, Philip L. Quinn, Frederick A. Olafson, Tom L. Beauchamp, James Rachels, Celia Wolf-Devine, La Verne Shelton, Ellen Frankel Paul, Alasdair MacIntyre, Richard T. De George, Peter J. Markie, James P. Sterba, Fred Sommers, Alan H. Goldman, and the editor.