Queer in black and white
Subtitle: interraciality, same sex desire, and contemporary African American culture
By: Stefanie K. Dunning.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Bloomington
Language: eng
Number of pages: 136
ISBN-13: 9780253353504; 9780253221094
Subjects: American fiction -- African American authors -- History and criticism; African Americans -- Intellectual life; Homosexuality in literature; Homosexuality in motion pictures; Homosexuality in music; Race relations in literature; Race relations in motion pictures; African Americans -- Race identity
Description: This book analyzes representative works of African American fiction, film, and music in which interracial desire appears in the context of same-sex desire. The author explores ways in which the interracial intersects with queerness, blackness, whiteness, class, and black national identity. She shows that representations of interracial desire do not follow the logic of racial exclusion. Instead they are metaphorical and anti-biological. Rather than diluting race, interracial desire makes race visible. By invoking the interracial, black gay and lesbian artists can remake our conception of blackness. Works considered include Marlon Riggs's film Tongues Untied; James Baldwin's novel Another Country; Ann Shockley's novel Loving Her; Cheryl Dunye's "mockumentary" The Watermelon Woman; and Me'Shell NdegéOcello's album Plantation Lullabies.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.