The sovereignty of quiet : beyond resistance in Black culture / Kevin Quashie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Quashie, Kevin Everod.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

American literature.

African Americans--Intellectual life.

African Americans.

African Americans--Race identity.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

Group identity in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (204 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant. In The Sovereignty of Quiet, Kevin Quashie explores quiet as a different kind of expressiveness, one which characterizes a person’s desires, ambitions, hungers, vulnerabilities, and fears. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture. The book revisits such iconic moments as Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and Elizabeth Alexander’s reading at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. Quashie also examines such landmark texts as Gwendolyn Brooks’s Maud Martha, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, and Toni Morrison’s Sula to move beyond the emphasis on resistance, and to suggest that concepts like surrender, dreaming, and waiting can remind us of the wealth of black humanity.

Contents:

Introduction: Why Quiet

Publicness, Silence, and the Sovereignty of the Interior

Not Double Consciousness but the Consciousness of Surrender

Maud Martha and the Practice of Paying Attention

Quiet, Vulnerability, and Nationalism

The Capacities of Waiting, the Expressiveness of Prayer

Conclusion: To Be One.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-280-69171-9

9786613668653

0-8135-5311-3

OCLC:

795120083