Demonstrating the extraordinary versatility of African-American
men's writing since the 1970s, this forceful collection illustrates
how African-American male novelists and playwrights have absorbed,
challenged, and expanded the conventions of black American writing
and, with it, black male identity.
From the "John Henry Syndrome" -- a definition of black
masculinity based on brute strength or violence -- to the
submersion of black gay identity under equations of gay with white
and black with straight, the African-American male in literature
and drama has traditionally been characterized in ways that confine
and silence him. Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama
identifies the forces that limit black male discourse, including
traditions established by iconic African-American male authors such
as James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison. This
thoughtful volume also shows how contemporary black male authors
use their narratives to put forward new ways of being and knowing
that foster a more complete sense of self and more humane and open
ways of communicating with and relating to others.
In the work of Charles Johnson, Ernest Gaines, and August
Wilson, contributors find paths toward broader, less rigid ideas of
what black literature can be, what the connections among individual
and communal resistance can be, and how black men can transcend the
imprisoning models of hypermasculinity promoted by American
culture. Seeking greater spiritual connection with the past, John
Edgar Wideman returns to the folk rituals of his family, while
Melvin Dixon and Brent Wade reclaim African roots and
traditions.
Ishmael Reed struggles with a contemporary cultural oppression
that he seesas an insidious echo of slavery, while Clarence Major's
experimental writing suggests how black men might reclaim their own
voices in a culture that silences them.
Taking in a wide range of critical, theoretical, cultural,
gender, and sexual concerns, Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and
Drama provides provocative and sustaining new readings of both
established and relatively unknown writers.
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