Reading contemporary African American literature : Black women's popular fiction, post-civil rights experience, and the African American canon / Beauty Bragg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bragg, Beauty, 1969- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--African American authors.

American literature--Women writers.

American literature.

Physical Description:

xx, 119 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2015]

Summary:

Reading Contemporary African American Literature focuses on contemporary African American popular fiction by women. Bragg's study addresses why such work should be the subject of scholarly examination, describes events and attitudes that account for the critical neglect of this body of work, and models an approach to these narratives that demonstrates the distinctive ways this literature captures the complexities of post-civil rights era black experiences. In making her claims for 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 to the shifting social terrain, which is reflected in the rapidly evolving styles and themes that 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. Book jacket.

Contents:

The reconstructionist canon, Black feminist literary perspectives, and popular potential

Toni Morrison's tar baby and the problem of classification

Girlfriend fiction : Black women writers and readers negotiating post-civil rights womanhood

Feminism and the streets : urban fiction and the quest for female independence in the era of transactional sexuality

Hip hop tell-all memoirs and modes of self-construction

Conclusion : from critical practice to classroom practice.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739188781

073918878X

OCLC:

897468494