Romance in Marseilles Overview
Romance in Marseilles is a novel by Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay (1889-1948). McKay wrote his novel in the late 1920s and the early 1930s, but it was not published until the year 2020. The novel follows Lafala, a man from Senegal who works as a sailor. When the crew of a shipping boat find him stowing away on their boat, they lock him in a cold room, and he loses his legs to frostbite. After receiving a large monetary settlement from the shipping company, Lafala travels to Marseilles, France to try to win the affections of a woman he met there. The novel explores themes of history, racism, violence, greed, and love.
Study Pack
The Romance in Marseilles Study Pack contains:
Romance in Marseilles Study Guide
Claude McKay Biographies (5)
385 words, approx. 2 pages
Claude McKay (1890-1948), Jamaican-born poet and novelist, is often called "the first voice of the Harlem renaissance." His verse and fiction are best known for protesting the social evils that plague...
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649 words, approx. 3 pages
Once, on being asked his nationality, Claude McKay flippantly answered that he preferred to think of himself as an "internationalist." Though lightly given, the answer was not far off the mark. Born a...
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1,357 words, approx. 5 pages
Claude McKay's poetry and his life display the presence of conflicting forces: his sense of identity as a black man and his desire to write out of a traditional literary heritage. While his poem "If W...
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6,135 words, approx. 21 pages
Festus Claudius McKay was perhaps the most radical of the young black writers who came to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Shaped by an attraction to genteel British culture, esp...
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2,601 words, approx. 9 pages
What is generally termed the Harlem Renaissance, a decade of black self-awareness and racial pride, is frequently dated from the appearance in print of Claude McKay 's great sonnet "If We Must Die," ...
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Claude McKay
Festus Claudius McKay