Autobiography of an ex-colored man essay topics

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James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is one of the most significant works of fiction by an African American author and one of the preeminent works of the Harlem Renaissance (although it was published first in and reissued in ).

As it was published anonymously, many readers assumed it was a true story. Autobiography has been a mainstay in courses on African American literature because of its layered description of racial tensions and the conflicting nature of identity in the early 20th century.

Johnson was an avid reader and a student at Columbia University when he started working on the novel.

Autobiography of an ex-colored man essay topics pdf

He showed it to his professor, Bernard Matthews, in , and the older man encouraged him to keep working on it. Johnson finished Autobiography in when he was working as a diplomat in Corinto, Nicaragua. The Boston firm of Sherman, French, and Company published Autobiography in