Risk, altruism and universal historiography in the works and days of Ralph Bunche, Sterling Brown, Richard Wright and Robert Hayden

The core subjects of this dissertation are two words and one phrase. The words are risk and altruism. The phrase is universal historiography. The dissertation maintains that the heart of literature and human life are one, and that the heart in question is shaped by seminal choices between various kinds of security (shelter from risk) and altruism. The dissertation defines risk as danger to a person's or a community's life or hopes. Altruism is defined as action undertaken, at some risk to the actor, to protect a person or a community from danger to its life or hopes. Universal historiography is defined as an account of the world that strives to give equal weight to---or even to balance---the risks faced and the hopes cherished by all groups of people. Put more simply, a universal historiography can be described as a vision of the history and future of the world in which all human lives have equal value. The dissertation argues that the when a choice is made between risk and altruism (or, more realistically, between some combination of risk-management and altruism) a universal historiography is always either accepted or, more commonly, rejected. Every work of literature worth the paper it is written on, and every real world achievement in the area of human relations, it is argued here, is built on certain constructions of the "truth" about risk, altruism and universal historiography. The epics that are the root of so many cultures around the world all tell the exploits of heroes who earn the name by risking their lives for the benefit of their communities. In works like the Aeneid, the risks the hero takes are seen as being fateful for a civilization whose history directs the history of the world. In other words, the hero's altruistic risk-taking guarantees a universal historiography. This dissertation aims to shed light on the relationship between risk altruism and universal historiography in situations in which all three phenomena play a role. Within these constraints, the focus of this work will be (a) a United Nations official, Ralph Bunche, whose actions can be described not only as heroic but also as important for a universal historiography that may yet take hold in the world, and (b) three writers, Sterling Brown, Richard Wright and Robert Hayden, whose works grow out of the struggles of a people unusually exposed to the world's risks and unusually in need of a historiography more universal than those that have prevailed in the 20th century. *.;*Originally published in DAI Volume 60, No. 1. Reprinted here with corrected abstract.