Comedy Night (novel), and, Contextual essay: What is the impact of a political novel upon the reader? [with Original writing] (Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, William Faulkner, Nadine Gordimer, South Africa, Paule Marshall, Barbados)

My PDE consists of a novel, Comedy Night, and a contextual essay that addresses the question, What Is The Impact of A Political Novel Upon The Reader?; Comedy Night is a political novel about a stand-up comedian, Kevin Klein, who prescribes to the Lenny Bruce school of black humor and social satire. The novel follows the protagonist's dream of becoming a comedy headliner in Manhattan. Kevin's hypothesis is that biting social satire can help to bring about social change. However, as his alcohol and cocaine addictions exacerbate, his effectiveness as a comedian diminishes. This is the story of an idealistic comedian whose dreams are detoured, until events in his life radically alter his perspective.; The theoretical basis of Comedy Night is that political novels, and comedy, are two potent forces of social change. It is my thesis that political novels, like the ones written by James Baldwin, Richard Wright or Toni Morrison, can have a profound impact on their readers. Reader's perspectives, or lives, can be subtly, or dramatically, altered by a powerful political novel. And comedy, whether it's stand-up comedy, or black humor interwoven into a novel, can pinprick the audience's social consciousness, causing a shift in the way one perceives oneself and the world.; My Contextual Essay, on the other hand, is an exploration of the 20th Century political novel genre. Initially, I define "political novel," and then highlight the differences and the similarities between Comedy Night and the following five political novels: Invisible Man, Brown Girl, Brownstones, Another Country, My Son's Story and Light in August. I combine my critique of these novels with selected works of literary criticism to elucidate the multiple meanings of the text. The essay underscores my novel's hypothesis that a correlation exists between the drug and alcohol addiction of artists and their acute sensitivity to the world's problems.