The Black Border and Fugitive Narration in Black American Literature

This book tests the limits of fugitivity as a concept in recent Black feminist and Afro-pessimist thought. It follows the conceptual travels of confinement and flight through three major Black writing traditions in North America from the 1840s to the early 21st century. Cultural analysis is the basic methodological approach and recent concepts of captivity and fugitivity in Afro-pessimist and Black feminist theory form the theoretical framework. American Frictions presents cutting-edge research in the field of American cultural studies. The series explores manifold complexities and frictions in the Americas, building on existing scholarship and propelling it in new directions. It challenges nation-based approaches by offering perspectives that are polyvocal, including interdisciplinary and transnational viewpoints from North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Volumes in the series – peer reviewed monographs and collections – delve into literature, culture, theory, and the arts, situating them in historical contexts of global networks and migrations. They contribute to epistemologies of difference, diversity, and inequality, including gender, queer, decolonial, indigenous, and critical race studies. Contents Introduction or Looking for the Fugitive Life in Social Death Part 1. Fugitivity against the Border: Afro-Pessimism, Black Feminist Fugitive Thought, and the Border to Social Death Part 2. Practices of Flight: Captivity and Fugitivity in Black American Literature Fugitive Conclusions or the Inescapability of Captivity, Flight, and Fugitive Narration Works Cited Acknowledgements Index