Rediscovering Richard Wright as a S(p)ecular Border Intellectual

Abstract

This paper will rediscover the cultural legacy of Richard Wright as a 's(p)ecular border intellectual' in the age of globalization and it will examine how his legacy contributed to shaping contemporary transnational studies. Richard Wright makes a synthesis between class and race, between white and black, between Marxism and nationalism, between the individual and society. It is, therefore, necessary to rediscover Wright beyond his own racial and national boundary. Wright's works should be newly understood as cultural texts that encode very diverse cultural influences of the 1930s-50s' American society and prepare ground for seed of the 21st century's transnational studies. Wright gradually emerges as a border intellectual who observes race and colonialism from a global perspective. His s(p)ecular border position disrupts the clear-cut authority of domination because it disturbs the simple binary relationship between white and black, Western and non-Western. It makes him possibly modulate to his artistic advantage polarities such as modernism versus realism, fiction versus nonfiction, the personal versus the political, individual versus community, and race versus class. I believe this transnational approach of him will help Korean scholars and students experience a diverse cultural heritage of African American intellectual and give chance to have a transnational understanding of black culture.