Spirit in the Dark : A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics

Many of the most important black intellectual movements of the second half of the twentieth century were perceived as secular, if not profane. When religion has figured into scholarly accounts of these moments, it has almost always appeared as tangential or inconsequential. In Spirit in the Dark , Josef Sorett upends this narrative by exploring the ways in which religion continued to animate and organize African American literary visions throughout the years between the New Negro Renaissance of the 1920s and the Black Arts movement of the 1960s. Sorett unveils the contours of a literary history that remained preoccupied with religion even as it was typically understood, by authors, readers and critics alike, to be secular. In doing so, he reveals how religion, especially Christianity, remained pivotal to the very ideas and aspirations of African American literature across much of the twentieth century. More specifically, Sorett shows that religion and spirituality are key categories for identifying what is (or is not) perceived to constitute or contribute to a black culture. By examining figures and movements that have typically been cast as "secular," he offers theoretical insights that blur the boundaries of the "sacred" in scholarship on African American religion and culture. Ultimately, Spirit in the Dark reveals religion to be an essential ingredient, albeit one that was always questioned and contested, to the forging of an African American literary tradition. Most of the major black literary and cultural movements of the twentieth century have been understood and interpreted as secular, secularizing and, at times, profane. In this book, Josef Sorett demonstrates that religion was actually a formidable force within these movements, animating and organizing African American literary visions throughout the years between the New Negro Renaissance of the 1920s and the Black Arts movement of the 1960s. Sorett unveils the contours of a literary history that remained preoccupied with religion even as it was typically understood by authors, readers, and critics alike to be modern and, therefore, secular. Spirit in the Dark offers an account of the ways in which religion, especially Afro-Protestantism, remained pivotal to the ideas and aspirations of African American literature across much of the twentieth century. From the dawn of the New Negro Renaissance until the ascendance of the Black Arts movement, black writers developed a spiritual grammar for discussing race and art by drawing on terms such as "church" and "spirit" that were part of the landscape and lexicon of American religious history. Sorett demonstrates that religion and spirituality have been key categories for identifying and interpreting what was (or was not) perceived to constitute or contribute to black literature and culture. By examining figures and movements that have typically been cast as "secular," he offers theoretical insights that trouble the boundaries of what counts as "sacred" in scholarship on African American religion and culture. Ultimately, Spirit in the Dark reveals religion to be an essential ingredient, albeit one that was always questioned and contested, in the forging of an African American literary tradition. While many of the most significant black intellectual movements of the second half of the twentieth century have been perceived as secular, Josef Sorett demonstrates in this book that religion was actually a fertile, fluid and formidable force within these movements. Spirit in the Dark examines how African American literary visions were animated and organized by religion and spirituality, from the New Negro Renaissance of the 1920s to the Black Arts movement of the 1960s Cover 1 Spirit in the Dark 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Prologue: Are You Getting the Spirit? 10 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction: Church, Spirit, and the History of Racial Aesthetics 24 1. The Church and the Negro Spirit 42 2. Ancestral Spirits 78 3. Catholic Spirits 102 4. As the Spirit Moves 138 5. An International Spirit 173 6. That Spirit Is Black 196 7. Contrary Spirits 222 Epilogue: You Can’t Keep a Good Church Down! 240 Notes 244 Index 290