In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary
In this wide-ranging analysis, W. Lawrence Hogue argues that African American life and history is more diverse than even African American critics generally acknowledge. Focusing on literary representations of African American males in particular, Hogue examines works by James Weldon Johnson, William Melvin Kelley, Charles Wright, Nathan Heard, Clarence Major, James Earl Hardy, and Don Belton to see how they portray middle-class, Christian, subaltern, voodoo, urban, jazz/blues, postmodern, and gay African American cultures. Hogue shows that this polycentric perspective can move beyond a “racial uplift” approach to African American literature and history and help paint a clearer picture of the rich diversity of African American life and culture.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. pp. iii-v
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. p. vii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preface
  2. pp. ix-xii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. p. xiii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter One. Introduction: Approaching African American Life, History, Literature, and Criticism Polycentrically
  2. pp. 1-11
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Two. History, the White/Black Binary, and the Construction of the African American as Other
  2. pp. 13-33
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Three. The White/Black Binary and the African American Sociopolitical Mission of Racial Uplift
  2. pp. 35-65
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Four. Finding Freedom in Sameness: James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man
  2. pp. 67-92
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Five. Disrupting the White/Black Binary: William Melvin Kelley’s A Different Drummer
  2. pp. 93-117
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Six. Exposing Limiting, Racialized Heterological Critical Sites: An Existential Reading of Charles Wright’s The Messenger
  2. pp. 119-145
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Seven. The Blue Idiom Lifestyle, Counter-Hegemony, and Clarence Major’s Dirty Bird Blues
  2. pp. 147-170
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Eight. Naming the Subaltern: The Swinging Life and Nathan Heard’s Howard Street
  2. pp. 171-197
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Nine. Identity Politics, Sexual Fluidity, and James Earl Hardy’s B-Boy Blues
  2. pp. 199-224
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Ten. Voodoo, A Different African American Experience, and Don Belton’s Almost Midnight
  2. pp. 225-251
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Eleven. Conclusion
  2. pp. 253-255
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 257-271
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Works Cited
  2. pp. 273-281
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 283-291
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.