Act like you know
Subtitle: African-American autobiography and white identity
By: Crispin Sartwell.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Chicago, IL
Language: eng
Number of pages: 212
Subjects: American prose literature -- African American authors -- History and criticism.; African American authors -- Biography -- History and criticism.; Slaves -- United States -- Biography -- History and criticism.; African Americans -- Biography -- History and criticism.; Slaves' writings, American -- History and criticism.; Slaves -- United States -- Intellectual life.; Whites -- Race identity -- United States.; African Americans -- Intellectual life.; African Americans in literature.; Autobiography.; United States -- Race relations.
Description: Black autobiographical discourses, from the earliest slave narratives to the most contemporary urban raps, have each in their own way gauged and confronted the character of white society. For Crispin Sartwell, as philosopher, cultural critic, and white male, these texts, through their exacting insights and external perspective, provide a rare opportunity to glimpse and gain access to the contents and core of white identity.

Throughout this provocative work, Sartwell steadfastly recognizes the many ways in which he too is implicated in the formulation and perpetuation of racial attitudes and discourse. In Act Like You Know, he challenges both himself and others to take a long, hard look in the mirror of African-American autobiography, and to find there, in the light of those narratives, the visible features of white identity.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.