Reading contemporary African American literature
Subtitle: Black women's popular fiction, post-civil rights experience, and the African American canon
By: Beauty Bragg
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 119
ISBN-13: 9780739188781; 9781498507141
Subjects: Women authors; American literature; African American authors; History and criticism
Description: Reading Contemporary African American Literature focuses on the subject of contemporary African American popular fiction by women. Bragg’s study addresses why such work should be the subject of scholarly examination, describes the events and attitudes which account for the critical neglect of this body of work, and models a critical approach to such narratives that demonstrates the distinctive ways in which this literature captures the complexities of post-civil rights era black experiences. In making her arguments regarding the value of popular writing, Bragg argues that black women’s popular fiction foregrounds gender in ways that are frequently missing from other modes of narrative production. They exhibit a responsiveness and timeliness to the shifting social terrain which is reflected in the rapidly shifting styles and themes which characterize popular fiction. In doing so, they extend the historical function of African American literature by continuing to engage the black body as a symbol of political meaning in the social context of the United States. In popular literature Beauty Bragg locates a space from which black women engage a variety of public discourses. --Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 113-115) and index.
Table of contents: title: The reconstructionist canon, Black feminist literary perspectives, and popular potential; title: Toni Morrison's tar baby and the problem of classification; title: Girlfriend fiction : Black women writers and readers negotiating post-civil rights womanhood; title: Feminism and the streets : urban fiction and the quest for female independence in the era of transactional sexuality; title: Hip hop tell-all memoirs and modes of self-construction; title: Conclusion : from critical practice to classroom practice.