Ernest Gaines Summary

Biography EssayErnest J. Gaines is one of the best known of contemporary black writers. He received popular and critical recognition for the publication and subsequent television production of The Aut... Read more

Ernest J. Gaines novelist and short story writer, was born to Manuel and Adrienne J. (Colar) Gaines on 15 January 1933 in the bayou country near Oscar, Louisiana, which lies about twenty-five miles n... Read more

[This entry was updated by Keith E. Byerman (Indiana State University) from his entry in DLB 152: American Novelists Since World War II, Fourth Series.]Ernest J. Gaines has since the publication of Th... Read more

In the following essay, Shelton examines the aesthetics and themes of Bloodline, focusing on the thematic recurrence of how the African American male attains manhood, what constitutes manhood, and its... Read more

In the following essay, Hicks traces the evolution of Gaines's concern with black history and community from Catherine Carmier through The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, highlighting the a... Read more

In the following essay, Roberts analyzes the conflict between Southern black communal values and the developing social consciousnesses of the young African American protagonists of the short stories &... Read more

In the following essay, Harper examines the significance of the father-son theme in A Gathering of Old Men, focusing on the novel's development of figures of speech. In A Gathering of Old Me... Read more

In the following essay, Doyle contrasts the geographical, historical, and cultural implications of Gaines's fictional settings and characters with the conventions of modern Southern literature.... Read more

In the following essay, Folks details the thematic significance of the economic and social changes of the New South that inform Gaines's fiction with respect to both the literary traditions of ... Read more

In the following essay, Papa describes the oppressive symbolism of Christian subtext that informs Gaines's writings, showing the relation between Christianity and Gaines's own perspectiv... Read more

In the following essay, Auger examines how Jefferson of A Lesson before Dying both appropriates and subverts the dominant discourse of the white American South in order to assume the position of a mal... Read more

In the following review, Wardi focuses on the relationship between Wiggins and Jefferson in A Lesson before Dying, assessing the characters's personal transformations and the significance of li... Read more

In the following essay, Clark illustrates how A Gathering of Old Men re-inscribes notions of African American masculinity in order to create a revised representation of black literary subjectivity. ... Read more

In the following review, Upson compares the themes of violence in A Gathering of Old Men with Walter Mosley's Walkin' the Dog. While crime writers lament the difficulties of maintaini... Read more

Critical Essay by William Peden Gaines's strength lies in his quietly compassionate depiction of plantation Blacks in his native Louisiana…. "A Long Day in November," t... Read more

Critical Essay by Julian Moynahan In My Father's House would make a gripping play with its tight plot and strong scenes of confrontation, its Ibsenite central character …, and its centr... Read more

Critical Essay by Winifred L. Stoelting Ernest Gaines, contemporary novelist and short story writer, creates [his own world], recognizable as part of his earlier experience on a Southern, white-owned... Read more