Trudier Harris's Bigger: A Literary Life -- ep. by Howard Rambsy II

Finally, a sustained scholarly exploration of a character who, for over eight decades, has haunted our literary and cultural imaginations. 
Written by Howard Rambsy II
Read by Kassandra Timm

Transcript

Finally, a sustained scholarly exploration of a character who, for over eight decades, has haunted our literary and cultural imaginations. Few Black fictional characters from literature have been more widely discussed and analyzed for an extended period of time than the main character from Richard Wright’s 1940 Native Son. 

Scholar Trudier Harris, one of our leading experts on Black literature, takes us on a journey into the worlds of Richard Wright’s Bigger Thomas. 

You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions—a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American artistic productions, historical events, and more.  

Today, more than 80 years after Bigger was first introduced to readers, scholar Trudier Harris has published Bigger: A Literary Life.

The explorations of race, racism, poverty, and psychology in Native Son have made Bigger the subject of extensive scholarly criticism, and he has appeared beyond the page in stage and film adaptations of Wright’s novel. Now, Bigger is the focus of a scholarly work.  

“In this book,” writes Harris in the opening of Bigger: A Literary Life, “I want you to go on a journey to see how Bigger Thomas … came into being and what his life has been like for the past several decades.”  She traces Bigger’s literary life from his birth in Wright’s mind and novel to the appearances of the character in various other places. She explores Bigger’s presence in debates among literary critics, Black feminists, Black Power activists, and others across an extended period of time.  

This is far from Professor Harris’s first time writing about Richard Wright and his fictional characters. Over the decades, while establishing herself as one of our most prolific scholars of American and African American literature, Professor Harris gave multiple presentations and published articles and book chapters about works by Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, and many others.

But here, for the first time, she devotes a book-length study to Wright’s most famous or infamous character.  

Our reception of Bigger Thomas will be richer for the work Harris has produced.

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This episode was written by Howard Rambsy. The episode was edited by Elizabeth Cali.

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This podcast, Remarkable Receptions, is part of the Black Literature Network, a joint project from African American literary studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas. The project was made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation.  For more information, visit blacklitnetwork.org.