|
|
Untitled Document
The Autobiography of Malcolm X Resources
X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Grove
Press, 1966.
A remarkable synthesis of life-writing, oral history, and bildungsroman, The
Autobiography of Malcolm X chronicles a gifted individual’s search for
identity and struggle against oppression during the great political and cultural
conflicts of mid-20th-century America.
Created in the voices of both Malcolm X and his coauthor Alex Haley, the work
also becomes a chorus of many voices from the cultural worlds its hero inhabits:
the rural South of the 1930s, the urban zoot suit culture of the 1940s, the
Harlem underworld, a state prison, the Nation of Islam organization, and finally
the public stage of national politics during the Civil Rights Movement of the
1960s. The narrative of Malcolm Little’s transformation into Detroit Red,
Malcolm X, and finally Malik el-Shabazz is partly a story of the development
of individual identity, but also a powerful narrative of self-reeducation and
moral redemption. Containing a moving personal story about the redemptive power
of religious faith, it also offers perceptive and appreciative descriptions
of the culture and religion of Islam, seen from both inside and outside American
culture.
What ultimately seems to define the life of Malcolm X, however, is the search
for vocation. Living in times of crisis, its protagonist gradually discovers
gifts of critical analysis, persuasive public speaking, moral clarity, and leadership.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is the story of his struggle to bring these gifts
to bear, with honesty, acute intelligence, and integrity, on the great needs
of his time.
You can find this book in CLICnet.
|
