The sovereignty of quiet
Subtitle: beyond resistance in Black culture
By: Kevin Quashie
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New Brunswick, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 204
ISBN-13: 9780813553092; 9780813553108; 9780813553115
Subjects: Theory; Race identity; Intellectual life; History and criticism; American literature; Group identity in literature; African American authors; African Americans; Identity (Psychology) in literature
Description: "African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant. In The Sovereignty of Quiet, Kevin Quashie explores quiet as a different kind of expressiveness, one which characterizes a person's desires, ambitions, hungers, vulnerabilities, and fears. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of Black culture. The book revisits such iconic moments as Tommie Smith and John Carlos's protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and Elizabeth Alexander's reading at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. Quashie also examines such landmark texts as Gwendolyn Brooks's Maud Martha, James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, and Toni Morrison's Sula to move beyond the emphasis on resistance, and to suggest that concepts like surrender, dreaming, and waiting can remind us of the wealth of Black humanity."--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: why quiet; title: Publicness, silence, and the sovereignty of the interior; title: Not double consciousness but the consciousness of surrender; title: Maud Martha and the practice of paying attention; title: Quiet, vulnerability, and nationalism; title: The capacities of waiting, the expressiveness of prayer; title: Conclusion: to be one.