This year’s Clemson Literary Festival headliner brings prestige and accolades from multiple areas. Percival Everett, regarded as one of the most perceptive satirists in contemporary literature, is a professor at the University of Southern California whose books have won many awards and earned him a place in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His most recent novel, “James,” won last year’s National Book Award.
Clemson Literary Festival announced on Tuesday that Everett will not be able to attend the festival on Thursday due to “unforeseen circumstances.” However, Everett’s team is currently working to reschedule his visit to Clemson in the near future.
John Pursley, one of the faculty advisers to the festival planning committee, singled out “James” as a major motivator for the festival directors’ decision to ask Everett to headline. Pursley said that he and several of his students have greatly enjoyed reading and discussing the novel, which recontextualizes Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” telling the story from the perspective of Jim, a Black man escaping from slavery, who travels down the Mississippi River with Finn.
“James” uses the framework of Twain’s classic to further explore a broad spectrum of themes addressed or hinted at in the original novel. Everett’s book complicates many of Twain’s white characters, questioning whether they are truly as morally righteous as their portrayals in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
Another of Everett’s most acclaimed novels is his 2001 breakout “Erasure.” Similarly to “James,” “Erasure” interfaces with a wide variety of existing cultural texts, though not in as explicit or specific a manner as “James.” “Erasure” follows a Black literature professor, Monk Ellison, who pseudonymously writes a stereotypically “Black” book as a satirical reproach to popular literary fiction that he believes fetishizes Black suffering.
To his chagrin, the book becomes a bestseller. The novel references numerous artifacts of Black American culture — its plot recalls Spike Lee’s scathing 2000 film “Bamboozled,” for example, while its protagonist is named after jazz legend Thelonious Monk. In addition to the literary world, Everett satirizes Hollywood attitudes towards Black stories, as Monk contends with a boorish white film producer who wants to adapt his novel.
Ironically, “Erasure” was adapted to film as “American Fiction.” The movie, written and directed by Cord Jefferson, stars Jeffrey Wright as Monk. “American Fiction” was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won for its adapted screenplay. Its critical acclaim and awards brought further attention to Everett and his work.
