Claude McKay, Code Name Sasha : Queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance

G. Holcomb

"Sasha" was the code name adopted by Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay (1889-1948) to foil investigations of his life and work. In this study of four of McKay's texts - the first literary, cultural, and historical analysis to address the multilayered "queer black anarchism" in McKay's writings - Holcomb argues that McKay's "fringe" perspective not only targeted him for investigation but also contributed to a declining literary reputation. Perceived as mystifying and unacceptable because of his dedication to communism, McKay is perplexing and difficult to classify within the traditional constructs of the Harlem Renaissance. The problem that McKay's transnational, aesthetically itinerant writing inevitably has posed is where to locate him. Holcomb analyzes three of the most important works in McKay's career - the Jazz Age bestseller "Home to Harlem", the negritude manifesto Banjo, and the unpublished "Romance in Marseilles". Holcomb uncovers ways in which Home to Harlem assembles a homefront queer black anarchism, and treats Banjo as a novel that portrays Marxist internationalist sexual dissidence. Finally, he examines McKay's extensive FBI file and his late-1930s autobiography, "A Long Way from Home", in which McKay disguises his past as a means of eluding his harassers. The memoir is essential to understanding McKay's first three novels.