Evidence of things not seen : fantastical Blackness in genre fictions / Rhonda D. Frederick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frederick, Rhonda D., 1965- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

American fiction.

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

American fiction--African American authors--History and criticism.

Black people--Race identity.

Black people.

Black people in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (247 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, [2022]

Summary:

Evidence of Things Not Seen: Fantastical Blackness in Genre Fictions is an interdisciplinary study of blackness in genre literature of the Americas. The “fantastical” in fantastical blackness is conceived by an unrestrained imagination because it lives, despite every attempt at annihilation. This blackness amazes because it refuses the limits of anti-blackness. As put to work in this project, fantastical blackness is an ethical praxis that centers black self-knowledge as a point of departure rather than as a reaction to threatening or diminishing dominant narratives. Mystery, romance, fantasy, mixed-genre, and science fictions’ unrestrained imaginings profoundly communicate this quality of blackness, specifically here through the work of Barbara Neely, Colson Whitehead, Nalo Hopkinson, and Colin Channer. When black writers center this expressive quality, they make fantastical blackness available to a broad audience that then uses its imaginable vocabularies to reshape extra-literary realities. Ultimately, popular genres’ imaginable possibilities offer strategies through which the made up can be made real.

Contents:

5. Fifth-Fantasy, Short Story: Fantastically Black Woman: Nalo Hopkinson's "A Habit of Waste"

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

About the Author

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Prologue: Revelations in Black . . . and Popular

Introduction

1. First-Mystery: Fantastically Black Blanche White: Barbara Neely's Blanche on the Lam

2. Second-Urban Romantica: Making Black and Jamaican Love: Colin Channer's Waiting in Vain and Romance-ified Diaspora Identities

3. Third-Fantasy: Fantastic Possibilities: Theorizing National Belonging through Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring

4. Fourth-Multigenre: Seeing White: Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Frederick, Rhonda D. Evidence of Things Not Seen

ISBN:

9781978818101

1978818106

OCLC:

1328137604