Description
Book SynopsisFor a work to be considered African American literature, does it need to focus on African American characters? Or is it enough for the author to be identified as African American? Jarrett traces the shifting definitions of African American literature and the authors who wrote beyond those boundaries at the cost of critical dismissal or obscurity.
Trade Review"
Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature is a richly textured study of theoretical conceptions of the African American canon as well as primary and secondary sources." *
American Literature *
"In
Deans and Truants Gene Jarrett has inaugurated an entirely new approach to the subject of canon-formation in African American literature, insisting that we expand our definition of the tradition to include black authors who chose not to write about race and who, consequently, have often found their works uncollected and unanalyzed, if not severely critiqued. Jarrett's cogent and compelling argument is sure to generate debate and, ultimately, lead to a reconsideration of what, exactly, is 'African American' about African American literature. This is a very important book and marks the inaugural intervention of one of the major scholars and critics of African American literature of a new generation." * Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University *
"While challenging the standard notion of black literature, this readable, engaging work also provides insightful analyses of such understudied works as Morrison's short story 'Recitatif,' Yerby's historical novel
The Foxes of Harrow, and Schuyler's satirical novel
Black No More." *
Choice *
"Selecting a wide range of writing, poetry, novels, short stories, satire, and criticism, Jarrett shows how the reception of certain authors and their texts has defined what is and is not considered African American literature to this day. . . . This book is well written and as nicely nuanced as the topic it addresses." *
Journal of American Studies *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Problem of African American Literature
1. Entirely Black Verse from Him Would Succeed
2. We Must Write Like the White Men
3. The Conventional Blindness of the Caucasian Eye
4. The Impress of Nationality Rather than Race
5. A Negro Peoples' Movement in Writing
6. The Race Problem Was Not a Theme for Me
7. A-World-in-Which-Race-Does-Not-Matter
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
