In this Book
- The Sovereignty of Quiet: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Rutgers University Press
summary
African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant. In The Sovereignty of Quiet, Kevin Quashie explores quiet as a different kind of expressiveness, one which characterizes a person’s desires, ambitions, hungers, vulnerabilities, and fears. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture.
The book revisits such iconic moments as Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and Elizabeth Alexander’s reading at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. Quashie also examines such landmark texts as Gwendolyn Brooks’s Maud Martha, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, and Toni Morrison’s Sula to move beyond the emphasis on resistance, and to suggest that concepts like surrender, dreaming, and waiting can remind us of the wealth of black humanity.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Introduction: Why Quiet
- pp. 1-10
- 4. Quiet, Vulnerability, and Nationalism
- pp. 73-102
- Conclusion: To Be One
- pp. 119-134
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 135-136
- Permissions
- pp. 137-138
- Bibliography
- pp. 169-186
Additional Information
ISBN
9780813553115
Related ISBN(s)
9780813553108
MARC Record
OCLC
1016773849
Pages
204
Launched on MUSE
2018-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No