Mythes, Croyances et Religions, vol. XVIII, 2001, p. 89-97.

Anne Foata

A Childhood, The Gospel Singer, and writing : Harry Crews's Rituals of Exorcism

Abstract. Harry Crews's 1978 autobiography, A Childhood, provides a clue for reading the work of this Southern writer born during the Depression in the poorest county in Southern Georgia. Crews writes that he was five when he ``awakened" to himself and to the world around him, where ``survival depended on raw courage...born out of desperation and sustained by a lack of alternatives." To be able to live with the mystery and terror of his everyday life, Crews, at five, started to invent stories for the figures he found in the Sears, Roebuck catalogue, a habit which led to his first published novel, The Gospel Singer, in 1968.

Anne.Foata2@wanadoo.fr

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