Introduction 1
Ⅰ．White Response 1
Ⅱ．African American Response 2
Ⅲ．Chinese Response 4
Ⅳ．Contribution and Organization of the Book 5
Chapter One A Tense Triangle:the Blacks,the South and the Artist 16
1.1 The Blacks as the Center of Racial and Aesthetic Concerns 17
1.2 The South as the Center of Turbulent Changes 21
1.3 The Writer as the Center of Creativity 23
Chapter Two A Promising Start 28
2.1 An Extensive Awareness of Black Presence 28
2.2 The First Confrontation with a Named Black Family 43
2.3 First Encounter with Mulattoes 56
2.3.1 Mulattoes in Flags in the Dust 56
2.3.2 Mulattoes in"There Was a Queen" 63
Chapter Three A Swift Rise 71
3.1 A Black Family Granted Central Vision 71
3.2 Victim of Sexual Exploitation 114
3.3 Victim of Environment and Indian Slavery 120
Chapter Four A Psychological Leap 134
4.1 The First Systematic Demystification of Miscegenation 134
4.2 Dramatization of the Hysterical White Gyneolatry 168
4.3 Dramatization of Black as a"Tainted Idea" 172
4.4 Dramatization of"Blood"Myth 179
Chapter Five Two Summit Achievements 191
5.1 A Black's"Encyclopedia" 191
5.2 A Black's"Manifesto" 217
Chapter Six The Descending Curve 239
6.1 The Descent 239
6.2 The Symptoms 243
6.2.1 The Old Confederate Game Replayed 243
6.2.2 The Deified"Tyrant"and the Mystifying"Nun" 251
6.2.3 The Plummeting to the Ground 260
6.3 The Persistent Efforts 267
6.3.1 From Abstraction to Experience 267
6.3.2 From"Watching"to"Doing" 271
Chapter Seven The Limited Fauikner 281
7.1 The Stereotypes Revisited 281
7.2 Intruder in the Text 289
7.3 Neglect of Intra-racial Realities 292
Conclusion 296
Bibliography 300