Marc Dudley

Bio

My specialization is Twentieth Century American literature, with particular emphasis on Modern fiction and American culture (fiction and cultural studies of the 1910s-1950s), I split devotion to the so-called “standard” canon with that of African American literature. My interests includes the writings of contemporary novelists as well, such as those by Tobias Wolff, Caryl Philips, and Paule Marshall. Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Percival Everett, Cormac McCarthy, Richard Wright, Charles Chesnutt, Flannery O’Connor, Ishmael Reed, and Zora Neale Hurston are also among my favorites. My primary scholarly concerns are issues of race and identity as they relate to notions of Americana.  My research interests also include narrative construction as it relates to ontology in African American fiction, the intersection (of narrative technique) in film and literature, and American history and popular culture of the 1920s and 1930s especially. See my forthcoming edited collection from Kent State University Press, Teaching Hemingway and Film as one example.  Further, in Hemingway, Race and Art: Bloodlines and the Color Line, I investigate  Ernest Hemingway’s rarely recognized, life-long interest in race. And in Understanding James Baldwin, I explore the literary life of Baldwin, one of the twentieth-century’s true social justice warriors. I am also the editor of the recently published Norton Critical Edition of Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson, an author whose imprint on American Modernism is irrefutable.

I earned an Outstanding Teaching Award and was inducted into the North Carolina State University Academy of Outstanding Teachers in 2020.

In 2023, I was the recipient of an NCSU Outstanding Extension Award and inducted into the North Carolina State University Academy of Outstanding Faculty in Engagement and Extension. 

Follow me at:

http://ncsu.academia.edu/marcdudley

and

marckdudley.com

and on Twitter @RealMarcDudley 

Projects

My  current projects have me working with the texts of  Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, and Ralph Ellison. Hemingway, Race, and Art: Bloodlines and the Color Line is a rare, comprehensive exploration of Ernest Hemingway’s life-long engagement with American racial politics. In Understanding James Baldwin, I explore the life and social advocacy work of one of America’s most celebrated literary voices. Recently, I consulted on and was featured in the PBS documentary “Hemingway,” a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (2021).

Extension and Community Engagement

In recent years, I have been a frequent host and mediator of book discussions for the “Read Smart” discussion series sponsored by NCSU Libraries and the Wake County Public Library (Village District). I have also been a guest on local radio (WUNC) and I’ve spoken widely on the literary craft of both Ernest Hemingway and James Baldwin for such organizations as Winston-Salem Writers and NCSU’s own Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

For my engagement efforts, in 2023 I was awarded an NCSU Outstanding Extension Award and was inducted into the North Carolina State University Academy of Outstanding Faculty in Engagement and Extension.

Publications

Books:

Teaching Hemingway and Film. Teaching Hemingway Series, KSUP. Eds. Cam Cobb and Marc Dudley. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press,  2024.

Winesburg, Ohio: A Norton Critical Edition. Sherwood Anderson. Marc Dudley, Ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023.

 Understanding James Baldwin. University of South Carolina Press, 2019.

Hemingway, Race, and Art: Bloodlines and the Color Line. Kent State University Press, 2012.

Articles and Book Chapters:

“Indian Camps, “Badlands,” and the Spaces in Between: Re-Membering the (Mid)West in
Ernest Hemingway’s “Indian Stories” and Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses.” Good Country: Ernest Hemingway and the American West, Eds. Ross Tangedal and Doug Sheldo. University of Nevada Press, 2025.

“Scott’s America, in Black and White: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Race Matters.” The Bloomsbury Handbook to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Eds. Kelly Reams and Linda Wagner-Martin. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025.

“Teaching Toni Morrison’s  Sula in a Post-Racial Moment.” in The Bloomsbury Handbook to Toni Morrison. Eds. Kelly Reams and Linda Wagner-Martin. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.

“A Farewell to Arms and Green Hills of Africa.” in One True Sentence: Writers and Readers on Hemingway’s Art. Eds. Mark Cirino and Michael Von Cannon. Godine Publishing, 2022.

“New World Order, Old World Ways: Hemingway’s Colonialism and Postcolonialism,” in The New Hemingway. Eds. Suzanne del Gizzo and Kirk Curnutt. Cambridge University Press, 2020.

“Reading Between the (Color) Lines: Teaching Race in Hemingway’s ‘The Battler (expanded),'” Hemingway’s Short Stories Reflections on Teaching, Reading, and Understanding  Ed. Fred Svoboda. Kent State University Press,  2019.

“Reading Between the (Color) Lines: Teaching Race in Hemingway’s ‘The Battler,'” Teaching Hemingway and Race.  Ed. Gary Holcomb. Kent State University Press,  2018.

“Killin’ em with Kindness: ‘The Porter’ and Hemingway’s Racial Cauldron,” The Hemingway Review.  29.2 (Spring 2010): 28-45.   https://muse.jhu.edu/article/384708​​​​​​​

Media Conversations:  

American Narratives: Spotlight on Ernest Hemingway, Roundtable Discussion for PBS Learning, November 2021

Dangerous Summer: Ernest Hemingway and Race (Roundtable Discussion Sponsored by the Hemingway Society)

Interview on WUNC’s “The State of Things” about the continued relevance of James Baldwin

NCSU CHASS: A Conversation about Ernest Hemingway and Race​​​​​​​

“One True Podcast” (Sponsored by The Hemingway Society): A Conversation about Toni Morrison, Ernest Hemingway, and Race in American Letters

PBS Conversation with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick: “Hemingway, Gender, and Identity”

PBS Metrofocus Conversation with Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein on the Mind of Ernest Hemingway

CBS SUNDAY MORNING SHOW: Hemingway in the Age of #MeToo

Follow me here:  ncsu.academia.edu/marcdudley.

OR

https://www.marckdudley.com/​​​​​​​

OR

on Twitter @RealMarcDudley

Presentations and Invited Talks

“Black Brilliance in Literature” OLLI NCSU,  March 2024.

“Toni Morrison: Boldly Speaking the Unspeakable” Winston-Salem Writers, October 2023

“Francis Scott’s America, in Shades of Black and White: Fitzgerald and Race Matters” (Invitation to present at the International F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference, Vaxjo, Sweden—June 2023)

“Wrestling Hemingway: Cormac McCarthy’s John Grady Cole, Race, and the Code Hero.” Presented at the American Literature Association Conference, Boston, Mass—May 23)

“Pat Hobby, Scott Fitzgerald, and Those Magnificent Men of the Lying Machine: Hollywood and the Value of the Big Lie,” (Presented at the American Literature Association Conference; Boston, MA—May 2023)

“The Importance of Being Ernest in a Post-Everything Moment: Hemingway for the New Millennium.” 35th Annual Graduate Symposium Keynote Address: Innovation and Tradition: Re-Viewing the Modernist Moment in American Fiction. SUNY-New Paltz, New Paltz. New York, May 2023.

“Celebrating Black Brilliance in Literature,” Celebrating Black Brilliance and Black History 2023. Wake County Public Libraries, February 2023

“Why Winesburg Matters: The Legacy and Impact of Sherwood Anderson, Modern,”  Norton Library and Norton Critical Editions Speakers Series, February 2023

“James Baldwin: Being There, Bearing Witness,” Winston-Salem Writers, October 2022

Anti-Racist Pedagogy, “A Lesson Before Dying: A Lesson about Race (in America),” NCSU, November 2021

“Hemingway Reconsidered: The Importance of Being Ernest” OLLI NCSU, December 2021

“In the Age of Black Lives Matter and #Metoo, Does Hemingway Still Matter? The Legacy and Relevancy of Ernest Hemingway.” Lifetime Learning Institute Speaker’s Series—Virginia Tech, October 2021

”Ernest Hemingway, Writer” Winston Salem Writers, September 2021

“’Fathers and Sons,’ ‘Ten Indians,’ and ‘The Indians Moved Away’: Hemingway Re-Members the (Mid)West.” (Invitation to present at the Biennial International Hemingway Conference: HEMINGWAY IN WYOMING/MONTANA: A PLACE TO WRITE, A WRITING PLACE; Sheridan, WY—July 2020)

“Rock(s), Soul, and Re-membrance: If Beale Street Could Talk, the Blues, and a Legacy of Resistance.” (Invitation to present at The 2020 Conference on James Baldwin for Academics, Artists and Activists; Saint-Paul de Vence, France—June 2020)

“Through a Glass Darkly: Himes, Wright, and Baldwin and the Art of (Racial) Truth-Telling.” (Invitation to present at The Absurdity of Racism: An International Chester Himes Conference; Paris, France–June 2020)

“Painting (with Words) Those Blues Away: If Beale Street Could Talk, the Blues, and a Legacy of Resistance,” (invitation to present at "In a Speculative Light: The Arts of James Baldwin and Beauford Delaney”: James Baldwin and Beauford Delaney Conference/Symposium; Knoxville, TN—Feb 2020)

“Go West, Young Man: Pat Hobby, Prevarication, and Scott Fitzgerald’s Hollywood Imperative(to Tell the Truth, a Truth, Any Truth).”(Presented at the 15th International F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference: Fitzgerald Society in Toulouse; Toulouse, France—June 2019)

“Teaching the Truth, in Black and White: Race in Hemingway’s ‘The Battler.'”(Presented at the American Literature Association Conference; Boston, MA—May 2019)

“The Blues is the Blues is the Blues: If Beale Street Could Talk and James Baldwin’s Narrative of Resistance.” (Presented at the College Language Association’s Annual Conference; Raleigh, North Carolina–April 2019)

“Beyond Gatsby and Bathtub Gin: 1920s America and the Harlem Renaissance.” Invited talk at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Friday Center), Chapel Hill, NC; October 2018

“Shape-shifting and Moving Mountains: Hemingway’s Identity Politics in Under Kilimanjaro.” (Presented at The Hemingway Society International Conference: Hemingway in Paris; Paris, France–July 2018)

“Wrestling Ernest Hemingway: Cormac McCarthy’s John Cole, Race, and the Code Hero.” (Presented at The South Atlantic Modern Language Association; Atlanta, Georgia–November 2017)

“Reading Between the Lies: Fitzgerald’s “Absolution,” The Great Gatsby, and the Meaning of Mendacity.” (Presented at The American Literature Association’s Annual Conference; Boston, Massachussettes–June 2015)

“The (Real) Stuff of Which Dreams are Made: Race and Hemingway’s Self-made Man.” (Presented at The Hemingway Society International Conference: Hemingway in Venice; Venice, Italy–June 2014)

“Sportsman, Modern, (Racial) Progressive (?): Ernest Hemingway and the Complications of Race.” Invited talk/lecture at Campbell University, Buies Creek, NC; April 4 2013

“Charles Chesnutt’s Americana : The Conjure Stories  and the Self-Made Man”

(South Atlantic Modern Language Association; Durham, North Carolina—November 2012)

“The Ties That (Don’t) Bind: Hemingway’s Friendships in Red, White, and Black” (Presented at Atlantic Modern Language Association; Atlanta, Georgia—November 2011)

“Indian Camps, “Badlands,” and the Spaces in Between: Race in Hemingway’s “Indian Stories” and McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses (Presented at South Atlantic Modern Language Association; Atlanta, Georgia–November 2010)

“Standing in the Shadow of the (Racial) Mountain: Hemingway’s Under Kilimanjaro and the Crafting of Identity” (Presented at 14th Annual International Hemingway Society Conference: Hemingway’s Extreme Geographies; Lausanne, Switzerland–July 2010)

“Killin’em with Kindness: Tempered Blackness and Hemingway’s Tempered Storm” (Presented at South Atlantic Modern Language Association; Louisville, Kentucky—November 2008)