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
"When we moved to California I was lonely, so I went to the library and began to read a lot of fiction," Ernest J. Gaines told Paul Desruisseaux in the New York Times Book Review. It was the late 1940...
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
Ernest 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 Autobiography of...
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, Andrews explicates the dialectic representation of progress and regress that informs The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, demonstrating a pattern of psychological and spirit...
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, Shelton explores the change in emphasis concerning the issue of African American progress in In My Father's House, contrasting the novel's setting, characters, an...
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, Rowell explores the symbolic geography of Gaines's fiction, highlighting the physical, social, and political significance of the “quarters” where African A...
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 Men, ...
Read more
In the following essay, Griffin delineates the unwritten but universally understood Southern racial code that informs the relationships in Of Love and Dust, observing parallels between messianic tradi...
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, Meyer discusses the characterization of the protagonists of “A Long Day in November” and “The Sky Is Gray,” noting the internal conflicts between di...
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, Griffin addresses the significance of the names assigned to the characters of A Gathering of Old Men in relation to their social status and evolving maturity.
The gathering dep...
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 review, Vancil assesses the effect of the ironic point of view on the themes of A Lesson before Dying.
A Lesson before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines's fifth adult novel, is the Louis...
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, Lockhart summarizes A Lesson before Dying, highlighting the narrator's struggles to reconcile himself with his community and his fate.
A Lesson before Dying explores lo...
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 interview, originally conducted on October 22, 1996, Gaines discusses the European reaction to his works, his literary influences, the evolution of his art, the social progress of the...
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.
Wh...
Read more
In the following essay, Folks examines the Southern rural folk traditions represented in A Lesson before Dying, analyzing their significance in terms of both the conventions of classic realism and the...
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 maintaining ...
Read more
In the following interview, originally conducted during the spring of 2002, Gaines discusses his religious background and its influence on his characters, themes, and critical reception.
Before Alex H...
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," the b...
Read more
Critical Essay by Larry Mcmurtry
Ernest Gaines's fiction has been characterized from the first by its quiet force. The characters in his several fine books often raise their voices, but the aut...
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 centra...
Read more
Critical Essay by Mel Watkins
In ["In My Father's House"] Ernest Gaines returns to the fictional terrain he carved for himself in "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman&#x...
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
In this interview with Ernest James Gaines, he is asked a series of questions. The purpose of the opening question was to determine Gaines' impressions of Europe and the way Europeans criticize his ...
Read more
Ernest J. Gaines
Ernest J. Gaines
Ernest J(ames) Gaines
