African American
In reply to the discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Bernie Sanders, and Reparations [View all]Recursion
(56,582 posts)I've never read any fiction by Coates (I look forward very much to the comic book), but his narrative non-fiction is to me strongly impressionist: he starts with an axiom that every human being has an individual view on the world that informs their response to the world.
James's litcrit is more where the direct connection came; James was adamant that a text must be subjectively recognizable to the reader for it to have any value. This is to me where the Coates connection is the clearest: Coates is essentially criticizing the "literature" of American political writings and speech as unrecognizable to people of color.
So, I have no illusions that I have the light to enlighten you, but Coates's take on political writing as literary criticism reminds me of James at his best. I'd be happy to expand this more and defend it if you're interested, though it sounds like you know a lot more about James than I do; I'm just an amateur who likes James's criticism