New Essays on the African American Novel From Hurston and Ellison to Morrison and Whitehead

by King, Lovalerie; Selzer, Linda F.

• ISBN13: 9780230603271
• ISBN10: 0230603270
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This collection contributes to and advances scholarly discussions about the African American novel as a literary form. Essays respond to the general question, what has been the impact of the African American vernacular tradition-from the spirituals, blues, gospel, and jazz to hip hop-on the structure and style of the modern African American novel?

Author Biography

Lovalerie King is Assistant Professor of African American Language and Literature at Penn State University. Linda F. Selzer is Assistant Professor of English at Penn State University with a specialization in African American Literature and Culture.

Table of Contents

Anna Julia Cooper, Charles Chesnutt and the Hampton Folklore Society—

Constructing a Black Folk Aesthetic through Folklore and Memory

Blues Narratology and the African-American Novel

Edward Christopher Williams and the Other Washington Novel

What She Sows: The Evolution of African American Female Bildung and the Journey to Self from Zora Neale Hurston’sTheir Eyes Were Watching Godto Octavia Butler’sParable of the Sower

“—And I Might Even Be Said to Possess a Mind:” Hibernation, Psychoanalysis and Schizophrenia inInvisible Man

The Literate Pimp: Robert Beck, Iceberg Slim, and Pimping the African American Novel

“A Different Kind of Experiment”: Clarence Major’sDirty Bird Bluesand the Music of Visibility Clarence Major’sDirty Bird Blues

Underground Railroads and Drives: Gayl Jones’sMosquito

Dreaming and Waking in Wonderland:Faith and the Good Thingand Charles Johnson’s Fairy Tale Fictions

Seeking Space to Save Humanity: Spatial Realignments as a Structuring Motif in Octavia E. Butler’sClay’s Ark

Dancing Minds and Plays in the Dark: Intersections of Fiction and Critical Texts in Gayl Jones’sCorregidora, Toni Cade Bambara’sThe Salt Eaters, and Toni Morrison’sParadise

Specters of Public Massacre: Violence and the Collective in Toni Morrison’sParadise

Female Sexual Subjects in the Post-Soul Aesthetic African American Women’s Novel

Stomping the Blues No More? Hip Hop Aesthetics and Contemporary African American Literature

The Rise of Colson Whitehead: Hi-Tech Narratives and Literary Ascent

Blues Narratology and the African-American Novel

Edward Christopher Williams and the Other Washington Novel

What She Sows: The Evolution of African American Female Bildung and the Journey to Self from Zora Neale Hurston’sTheir Eyes Were Watching Godto Octavia Butler’sParable of the Sower

“—And I Might Even Be Said to Possess a Mind:” Hibernation, Psychoanalysis and Schizophrenia inInvisible Man

The Literate Pimp: Robert Beck, Iceberg Slim, and Pimping the African American Novel

“A Different Kind of Experiment”: Clarence Major’sDirty Bird Bluesand the Music of Visibility Clarence Major’sDirty Bird Blues

Underground Railroads and Drives: Gayl Jones’sMosquito

Dreaming and Waking in Wonderland:Faith and the Good Thingand Charles Johnson’s Fairy Tale Fictions

Seeking Space to Save Humanity: Spatial Realignments as a Structuring Motif in Octavia E. Butler’sClay’s Ark

Dancing Minds and Plays in the Dark: Intersections of Fiction and Critical Texts in Gayl Jones’sCorregidora, Toni Cade Bambara’sThe Salt Eaters, and Toni Morrison’sParadise

Specters of Public Massacre: Violence

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