New Essays on the African American Novel: From Hurston and Ellison to Morrison and Whitehead

283 Pages·2008·2.092 MB·English

by  Lovalerie King, Linda F. Selzer (eds.)

New Essays on the African American Novel

New Essays on the African
American Novel
From Hurston and Ellison to Morrison
and Whitehead
Edited by
Lovalerie King and Linda F. Selzer
NEW ESSAYS ON THE AFRICAN AMERICAN NOVEL
Copyright © Lovalerie King and Linda F. Selzer, 2008.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-60327-1
All rights reserved.
First published in 2008 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-60292-6 ISBN 978-0-230-61275-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-61275-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
New essays on the African American novel : from Hurston and
Ellison to Morrison and Whitehead / edited by Lovalerie King and
Linda F. Selzer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. American fiction—African American authors—History and
criticism. 2. American fiction—20th century—History and criticism.
3. African Americans—Intellectual life—20th century. 4. Literature
and folklore—United States. 5. African Americans in literature. I. King,
Lovalerie. II. Selzer, Linda F.
PS374.N4N49 2008
813(cid:2).509896073—dc22 2007048671
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: June 2008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to Digital Printing in 2009
For Bernard W. Bell.
In honor of his outstanding scholarly contributions
to the study of the African American Novel,
to the program of African American Literature and
Language at Penn State,
and to the vibrancy of national and global studies in
African American Literature

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Lovalerie King and Linda F. Selzer
1. Anna Julia Cooper, Charles Chesnutt, and The Hampton
Folklore Society—Constructing a Black Folk
Aesthetic through Folklore and Memory 13
Shirley C. Moody
2. Blues Narratology and the African American Novel 33
Andrew Scheiber
3. “—And I Might Even Be Said to Possess a Mind”:
Hibernation, Psychoanalysis, and
Schizophrenia in Invisible Man 51
James Sterling King
4. “A Different Kind of Experiment”: Clarence Major’s
Dirty Bird Blues and the Music of Visibility 65
William R. Nash
5. Dreaming and Waking in Wonderland: Faith and
the Good Thing and Charles Johnson’s
Fairy Tale Fictions 75
Gena E. Chandler
6. Dancing Minds and Plays in the Dark:
Intersections of Fiction and Critical Texts in
Gayl Jones’s Corregidora, Toni Cade Bambara’s
The Salt Eaters, and Toni Morrison’s Paradise 93
Dana A. Williams
7. Railroading the Novel: Gayl Jones’s Mosquito 107
Sarah Jane Cervenak
viii CONTENTS
8. Reaping What She Sows: The Evolution of
African American Female Bildung and the Journey
to Self from Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes
Were Watching God to Octavia
Butler’s Parable of the Sower 123
Brenda R. Smith
9. Seeking Space to Save Humanity: Spatial
Realignments as a Structuring Motif in
Octavia E. Butler’s Clay’s Ark 141
Mildred R. Mickle
10. Specters of Public Massacre: Violence and
the Collective in Toni Morrison’s Paradise 153
Shreerekha Subramanian
11. The Literate Pimp: Robert Beck, Iceberg Slim, and
Pimping the African American Novel 167
Candice Love Jackson
12. Edward Christopher Williams and the Other
Washington Novel 185
Jeffrey Charis-Carlson
13. Stomping the Blues No More? Hip Hop Aesthetics and
Contemporary African American Literature 201
Richard Schur
14. The Rise of Colson Whitehead: Hi-Tech
Narratives and Literary Ascent 221
Howard Rambsy II
15. “Nothing But A Man”: Racial Identity and
Musical Production in John Henry Days 241
Michael New
Notes on Contributors 259
Index 263
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the sponsors of Penn State’s April 2005
c onference, “Celebrating the African American Novel: Critical Visions
and Revisions of Its Past and Present,” including the Africana Research
Center, Center for American Literary Studies, College of the Liberal Arts,
Department of English, and Equal Opportunity Planning Committee. To
the Africana Research Center we owe a special debt of gratitude for its gener-
ous grant support for this project. We would also like to thank the authors of
the essays in this collection for sharing their work and for patiently bearing
with us during these past two years through the various processes leading to
publication. We also want to express our gratitude to our colleague R. Keith
Gilyard for originally suggesting that this collection be undertaken, and to
our editorial assistant, Matthew J. Newcomb, for his meticulous attention
to the formal details of preparing the manuscript for submission. Over the
past years the African American Literature and Language group at Penn
State has earned our deep appreciation for their continuing support of our
scholarly activities and for their unfailing dedication to the field of African
American letters. Last but not least, we must acknowledge the sustaining
support of our families in all our endeavors, and especially the support of
our partners, Bruce and Jack.