American Philanthropy and “Aggressive Altruism” in Richard Wright’s Native Son and Miguel Angel Asturias’ The Green Pope

My dissertation interrogates the narrative power of American philanthropy in the story of the United States’ rise as a global superpower in the twentieth century. For this presentation, I will present an excerpt of a chapter that considers how philanthropy permeates representations of hemispheric American relationships in the interwar period. I read Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940) and Miguel Angel Asturias’s El Papa Verde (1952) that center the “Black Metropolis” as the financial engine of the United States and the nucleus of transnational corporate expansion.

Friday Forum Winter quarter 2017 Schedule:

Fridays 12:20-2pm
Humanities 1 Room 202

A weekly interdisciplinary colloquium series for sharing graduate research across the humanities. Join us for light refreshments and weekly presentations by your fellow graduate students.

January 27, 2017: Sarah Papazoglakis, Literature

February 03, 2017: Rachel Shellabarger, Environmental Studies

February 10, 2017: Kyuhyun Han, History

February 17, 2017: Yulia Gilchinskaya, Film & Digital Media

February 24, 2017: Maggie Wander, HAVC

March 3, 2017: Chessa Adsit-Morris, HAVC