Contemporary African American Literature

Lovalerie King is Director of the Africana Research Center, Associate Professor, and Director of Graduate Studies in African American studies at Pennsylvania State University. She is author or co-editor of six books, including James Baldwin and Toni Morrison: Comparative and Theoretical Essays; Race, Theft, and Ethics: Property Matters in African American Literature; and New Essays on the African American Novel.Shirley Moody-Turner is Assistant Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University.

"A compelling collection of essays on the ongoing relevance of African American literature to our collective understanding of American history, society, and culture. Featuring a wide array of writers from all corners of the literary academy, the book will have national appeal and offer strategies for teaching African American literature in colleges and universities across the country."—Gene Jarrett, Boston University"Highly recommended."—Choice"[This book describes] a fruitful tension that brings scholars of major reputation together with newly emerging critics to explore the full range of literary activities that have flourished in the post-Civil Rights era. Notable are such popular influences as hip-hop music and Oprah Winfrey's Book Club . . ."—AMERICAN LITERARY SCHOLARSHIP 2013

• ForewordMat Johnson, University of HoustonAcknowledgmentsIntroductionLovalerie King and Shirley Moody-Turner, Penn State UniversityI. Politics of Publishing, Pedagogy, and Readership1. The Point of Entanglement: Modernism, Diaspora, and Toni Morrison's LoveHouston A. Baker, Jr., Vanderbilt University2. The Historical Burden that Only Oprah Can Bear: African American Satirists and the State of the LiteratureDarryl Dickson-Carr, Southern Methodist University3. Black is Gold: African American Literature, Literacy, and Pedagogical LegaciesMaryemma Graham, University of Kansas 4. Hip Hop Fiction (feat. Women Writers); or, Other Things Hip Hop Music Has Taught Black FictionEve Dunbar, Vassar College 5. Street Literature and the Mode of Spectacular Writing: Popular Fiction between Sensationalism, Education, Politics and EntertainmentKristina Graaff, Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University of BerlinII. Alternative Genealogies6. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Slave: Visual Artistry as Agency in the Contemporary Narrative of SlaveryEvie Shockley, Rutgers University 7. Variations on the Theme: Black Family, Nationhood, Lesbianism and Sadomasochistic Desire in Marci Blackman's Po Man's ChildCarmen Phelps, University of Toledo8. Bad-Brother-Man: Black Folk Figure Narratives in ComicsJames Braxton Peterson, Bucknell UniversityIII. Beyond Authenticity9. Sampling the Sonics of Sex (Funk) in Paul Beatty's SlumberlandL. H. Stallings, Indiana University 10. Urkel No More? Black Geeks in Contemporary Black LiteratureAlexander Weheliye, Northwestern University 11. The Crisis of Authenticity in Contemporary African American LiteratureRichard Schur, Drury University 12. Someday We'll All Be Free: Contemporary Fiction and the Post-Oppression NarrativeMartha Southgate, Brooklyn Novelist IV. Pedagogical Approaches and Implications 13. Untangling History, Dismantling Fear: Teaching Tayari Jones's Leaving AtlantaTrudier Harris, UNC-Chapel Hill, Emerita 14. Reading Kyle Baker's Nat Turner with a Group of Collegiate Black MenHoward Rambsy II, Southern Illinois University15. Toward the Theoretical Practice of Conceptual Liberation: Using An Africana Studies Approach to Reading African American Literary TextsGreg Carr, Howard University and Dana Williams, Howard University AfterwordAlice Randall, Vanderbilt NovelistAnnotated BibliographyPia Deas, Lincoln University and David Green, St. Johns UniversityIndex