Ghetto Images in Twentieth-Century American Literature

"Taking the ghetto as a race-making institution dependent on technologies of im/mobility, Tyrone Simpson offers a lucid analysis of the urban ecology of twentieth century U.S. fiction. Giving new meaning to the fine art of close reading, he approaches the spatial as a dense psychic territory, one that requires an interdisciplinary array of knowledges to adequately parse. This is a vibrant literary engagement with critical race theory." - Robyn Wiegman, Professor, Literature and Women's Studies, Duke University, author of American Anatomies: Theorizing Race and Gender and Object Lessons

'Tyrone Simpson gives us a compelling portrait of the historic pain and hope seared into America's rust belt ghettos. Under Simpson's deft prose, a new voice to understanding these racialized spaces the engaged writer is powerfully revealed.' - David Wilson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign