Rewriting Exodus American Futures from Du Bois to Obama

by Hartnell, Anna

• ISBN13: 9780745329567
• ISBN10: 074532956X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-15
• Publisher: PLUTO PRESS

Summary

Exodus, as a powerful narrative of liberation, has been a central imaginative touchstone in the black American struggle against U.S. racism. This book traces the concept in a number of pivotal black thinkers, and explores its signficance for contemporary America. The exodus story is a fitting allegory for the painful experience of exile that disproportionately afflicted African Americans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and it also provides compelling imagery for the triumphant election of Barack Obama in 2008. Building around these themes, Anna Hartnell traces the intellectual development of one of the defining narratives of black American thinking on social justice in the United States. In placing black America at the center of the study of U.S. culture,Rewriting Exodussuggests new ways of thinking about America's relationship with the Middle East and the wider postcolonial world. Hartnell's groundbreaking contribution marks a vital new chapter in American cultural and political history.

Author Biography

Anna Hartnell is a lecturer in Cultural and Critical Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has written for the Guardian, American Quarterly and Callaloo.

Table of Contents

1. Re-reading America: Obama and his Pastor
2. W.E.B. Du Bois: Double Consciousness and the Master/Slave Dialectic
3. Martin Luther King: Excavating the Promised Land
4. Malcolm X: Reclaiming 'Egypt'
5. Toni Morrison: Transcending the Nation
6. Hurricane Katrina's 'refugees': a New Diaspora
Conclusion