Contemporary African American Literature: The Living Canon (Blacks in the Diaspora)

Essays exploring contemporary black fiction and examining important issues in current African American literary studies.In this volume, Lovalerie King and Shirley Moody-Turner have compiled a collection of essays that offer access to some of the most innovative contemporary black fiction while addressing important issues in current African American literary studies. Distinguished scholars Houston Baker, Trudier Harris, Darryl Dickson-Carr, and Maryemma Graham join writers and younger scholars to explore the work of Toni Morrison, Edward P. Jones, Trey Ellis, Paul Beatty, Mat Johnson, Kyle Baker, Danzy Senna, Nikki Turner, and many others. The collection is bracketed by a foreword by novelist and graphic artist Mat Johnson, one of the most exciting and innovative contemporary African American writers, and an afterword by Alice Randall, author of the controversial parody The Wind Done Gone. Together, King and Moody-Turner make the case that diversity, innovation, and canon expansion are essential to maintaining the vitality of African American literary studies.“A compelling collection of essays on the ongoing relevance of African American literature to our collective understanding of American history, society, and culture. Featuring a wide array of writers from all corners of the literary academy, the book will have national appeal and offer strategies for teaching African American literature in colleges and universities across the country.” —Gene Jarrett, Boston University“[This book describes] a fruitful tension that brings scholars of major reputation together with newly emerging critics to explore the full range of literary activities that have flourished in the post-Civil Rights era. Notable are such popular influences as hip-hop music and Oprah Winfrey's Book Club.” —American Literary Scholarship, 2013 Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication Page 6 Table of Contents 8 Foreword 10 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction 18 Part 1. Politics of Publishing, Pedagogy, and Readership 32 1. The Point of Entanglement: Modernism, Diaspora, and Toni Morrison’s Love 34 2. “The Historical Burden that Only Oprah can Bear”: African American Satirists and the State of the Literature 58 3. Black is Gold: African American Literature, Critical Literacy, and Twenty-First-Century Pedagogies 72 4. Hip Hop (Feat. Women Writers): Reimagining Black Women and Agency through Hip Hop Fiction 108 5. Street Literature and the Mode of Spectacular Writing: Popular Fiction between Sensationalism, Education, Politics, and Entertainment 130 Part 2. Alternative Genealogies 152 6. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Slave: Visual Artistry as Agency in the Contemporary Narrative of Slavery 154 7. Variations on the Theme: Black Family, Nationhood, Lesbianism, and Sadomasochistic Desire in Marci Blackman’s Po Man’s Child 172 8. Bad Brother Man: Black Folk Figure Narratives in Comics 185 Part 3. Beyond Authenticity 204 9. Sampling the Sonics of Sex (Funk) in Paul Beatty’s Slumberland 206 10. Post-Integration Blues: Black Geeks and Afro-Diasporic Humanism 230 11. The Crisis of Authenticity in Contemporary African American Literature 252 12. Someday we’ll all be Free: Considering Post-Oppression Fiction 272 Part 4. Pedagogical Approaches and Implications 284 13. Untangling History, Dismantling Fear: Teaching Tayari Jones’s Leaving Atlanta 286 14. Reading Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner with a Group of Collegiate Black Men 302 15. Toward the Theoretical Practice of Conceptual Liberation: Using an Africana Studies Approach to Reading African American Literary Texts 319 Afterword 345 Annotated Bibliography 350 Contributors 368 Index 376