Signifying without specifying : racial discourse in the age of Obama / Stephanie Li.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Li, Stephanie, 1977-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--21st century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Race in literature.

Post-racialism--United States.

Post-racialism.

Politics and literature--United States--History--21st century.

Politics and literature.

History.

United States--Race relations.

United States.

Race relations.

Physical Description:

xi, 202 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, [2012]

Summary:

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama faced a difficult task-rallying African American voters while resisting his opponents' attempts to frame him as "too black" to govern the nation as a whole. Obama's solution was to employ what Toni Morrison calls "race-specific, race-free language," avoiding open discussions of racial issues while using terms and references that carried a specific cultural resonance for African American voters.

In Signifying without Specifying, Stephanie Li argues that American politicians and writers are using a new kind of language to speak about race. Challenging the notion that we have moved into a "post-racial" era, she suggests that we are in an uneasy moment where American public discourse demands that race be seen, but not heard. Analyzing contemporary political speech with nuanced readings of works by such authors as Toni Morrison, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Colson Whitehead, Li investigates how Americans of color have negotiated these tensions, inventing new ways to signal racial affiliations without violating taboos against open discussions of race. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Violence and Toni Morrison's Racist House 31

2 Hiding the Invisible Hurt of Race 68

3 The Unspeakable Language of Race and Fantasy in the Stories of Jhumpa Lahiri 100

4 Performing Intimacy: "Race-Specific, Race-Free Language" in Political Discourse 134.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780813551432

0813551439

9780813551449

0813551447

OCLC:

696605140