The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches

Contents

vii Contents Memoir: On Becoming an African American Scholar Activist xi Introduction 1 1 / Mapping the Rhetoric, Politics, and Poetics of Representation in the Contemporary African American Novel 9 A Critique of Eurocentric, Afrocentric, and Americentric Cultural Theories, Critics, and Criticism 13 A Postcolonial African Americentric, Neomasculinist Theory of Antiblack Racism and Internal Colonialism 29 An African Americentric Vernacular Theory of Culture and Identity 44 Core Black American Culture 49 The Vernacular Tradition and the Rhetoric, Dialectics, and Dialogics of the Contemporary African American Novel 56 2 / The Roots of the Contemporary African American Novel 59 Sociohistorical, Sociocultural, and Sociopsychological Landscape 60 African Oral Narrative Roots 73 African American Folk Roots 75 Residually Oral Forms: Oratory, Myth, Legend, Tale, and Song 78 Literary Sources and Branches 84 abolitionist literature 85 the king james bible 87 popular fiction 89 3 / Mapping the Peaks and Valleys of the African American Novel (1853–1962) 94 Early Historical Romance, Social Realism, and Beyond 94 Antebellum and Civil War Novels (1853–1865) 95 Postbellum, Reconstruction, and Post-Reconstruction Novels (1865–1902) 96 The Pre–World War I Novels of the Old Guard (1902–1917) 98 romance, realism, and naturalism 100 legacy of the old guard 103 viii Contents Modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Search for New Modes of Narrative (1917–1936) 104 poetic realism and historical romance 108 genteel realism: assimilationism, nationalism, or biculturalism 108 folk romance: primitivism, pastoralism, and ancestralism 110 folk realism: religion, music, humor, and language 114 satiric realism: the vices and follies of the folk and black bourgeoisie 115 Richard Wright and the Triumph of Naturalism (1936–1952) 117 wright and the “chicago school” of sociology 118 the great depression and the communist party 118 the federal writers’ project 121 the triumph of naturalism 121 continuity and change in the novels of the forties 122 Myth, Legend, and Ritual in the Novels of the Fifties (1952–1962) 124 beyond naturalism 125 myth, legend, and ritual 128 4 / Forms of Neorealism: Critical and Poetic Realism (1962–1983) 130 The Black Power and Black Arts Movements 130 The Women’s Rights and Black Feminist Movements 134 Literary Continuity and Change: Modernism and Neorealism 138 Critical and Poetic Neorealism 140 critical realism 141 john oliver killens (1916–1987) 142 john a[lfred] williams (1925–) 147 alice [malsenior] walker (1944–) 153 gayl [amanda] jones (1949–) 161 [miltona] toni [mirkin] cade bambara (1939–1995) 168 poetic realism and the gothic fable 174 [chloe anthony] toni [wofford] morrison (1931–) 174 Continuity in the Novel of the Sixties and Seventies 182 5 / Modernism and Postmodernism (1962–1983) 186 From Modernism and Structuralism to Poststructuralism and Postmodernism 187 Fabulation, Legend, and Neoslave Narrative 195 margaret [abigail] walker (1915–1998) 195 ernest j[ames] gaines (1933–) 199 william melvin kelley (1937–) 207 ronald l. fair (1932–) 213 ix Contents Fabulation, Romance, and Fantasy 216 john edgar wideman (1941–) 217 clarence [lee] major (1936–) 226 Fabulation and Satire 232 charles stevenson wright (1932–) 232 [george harold] hal bennett (1930–) 235 ishmael reed (1938–) 240 Change in the Novel of the Sixties and Seventies 248 6 / Continuity and Change in Ethnic Tropes of Identity Formation (1983–2001) 250 The Contemporary Black Aesthetic: Afrocentric and Diasporic Tropes of African American Identity and Community 257 paule [valenza pauline burke] marshall (1929–) 263 albert [lee] murray (1916–) 270 gloria naylor (1950–) 277 al[bert james] young (1939–) 282 david [henry] bradley [jr.] (1950–) 286 leon [richard] forrest (1937–1997) 295 7 / The New Black Aesthetic: Eurocentric Metafiction and African Americentric Tropes of Transcultural Identity and Community (1983–2001) 301 charles [richard] johnson (1948–) 305 nathaniel [ernest] mackey (1947–) 311 trey ellis [william arthur ellis iii] (1962–) 316 percival l[eonard] everett (1956–) 323 colson whitehead (1969–) 328 8 / Contemporary African American Paraliterature: Science/Speculative Fiction, Gay/Lesbian, and Detective/Mystery Novels and Romances (1983–2001) 333 Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Novels 335 samuel [ray] delany [jr.] (1942–) 337 octavia [estelle] butler (1947–) 343 Gay/Lesbian Novels and Romances 349 larry duplechan (1956–) 355 e[verette] lynn harris (1957–) 358 Detective/Mystery Novels 366 barbara neely (1941–) 369 walter [ellis] mosley (1952–) 375 Conclusion 383 Notes 389 Selected Bibliography 429 Index 463 x Contents ...