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Glite Dictionary
🌑 A fictional place ⚠️ An offensive term 📚 A crime novel
Darktown

Darktown

1 8.9
A 2016 historical crime novel by Thomas Mullen set in Atlanta after World War II
  • proper noun
  • Literature
: Darktown
  • In his novel Darktown, Thomas Mullen explores the complexities of race relations in postwar Atlanta.

Examples

  • Set in Darktown, the story provides a gripping look at the crime and social issues of the era.

  • The characters in Darktown face numerous challenges as they navigate life in a segregated city.

  • At 12:00 noon today, 15,000 students from all 50 states will be joined electronically to play Darktown Strutters' Ball on the kazoo for the President of the United States.

    Switching Channels (1988)

Surface Forms

Darktown main

Morphology

Darktown = dark + town (transparent) = dark + town

As the title of a novel, the name is a direct place-name compound; its composition 'dark' + 'town' evokes a gloomy or crime-associated setting and is inferable from the parts.

Etymology

Darktown is the title of a 2016 crime novel by Thomas Mullen. The title joins dark ('no light') and town ('a place where people live') to suggest both shadowy streets and the hidden racial tensions the story explores.