One True Podcast took the occasion of Toni Morrison’s death to consider the way race emerges as a key factor in Hemingway’s writing. In this episode, we turn to one of the most prominent Hemingway scholars on this issue, North Carolina State’s Marc Dudley.
During the interview, Dudley reflects on Morrison’s searing criticisms of Hemingway’s treatment of minority characters, and extends his thoughts to consider how other ethnicities – such as Native Americans – function in Hemingway’s work. Hemingway emerges both as a writer of his time, with all of its limitations and prejudices, and also as a man of sensitivity and deep insight. Our conversation on Hemingway and race is a timely one, asking the question: how do Hemingway’s depictions of race look through twenty-first-century eyes?
This episode was recorded on October 18, 2019.