Struggle, Resistance, and Decolonization in African American Literature after 1960

W. Lawrence Hogue is John and Rebecca Moores Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus, at University of Houston and the author of many books.

“In this new book, W. Lawrence Hogue engages a critical literary corpus by six African American novelists within the historical context of the post-1960s. The book examines six African American writers—Richard Wright (Native Son), James Baldwin (Another Country), Ishmael Reed (Flight to Canada), Paule Marshall (Praisesong for the Widow), Toni Cade Bambara (The Salt Eaters), and Ntozake Shange (Liliane). Employing a multidisciplinary theoretical framework, Hogue in Struggle, Resistance, and Decolonization in African American Literature After 1960 examines how the past cultural beliefs and practices converge to create a life of wholeness, addressing the current issues in the 21st-century context of challenging white supremacy. The book makes an excellent assessment of decolonization of the African American mind and offers a unique contribution to the field of African American literature.” —Prof. E. Lâle Demirtürk, Professor Emerita of American Literature, Bilkent University,  Turkey, author of (Inter)racial Relationships as Accompaniment in Twenty-First Century African American Novels.

• Preface and Acknowledgments; Chapter 1 Literature, Society, and Politics: Defining African American Literature as a Resisting Deleuzian Minor Literature; Chapter 2 A Postcolonial, Capitalist, Racial, and Existential Reading of Richard Wright’s Native Son; Chapter 3 The Blues, Individuated Subjectivity, and James Baldwin’s Another Country; Chapter 4 Voodoo, the Neo-slave Narrative and Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada; Chapter 5 Spiritual Renewal, Becoming Whole, and Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow; Chapter 6 Accessing and Reinvigorating Ancestral and Spiritual Histories to Reach Wholeness in Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters; Chapter 7 Becoming Aware/Mindful, Psychoanalytical Therapy, and Ntozake Shange’s Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter; Chapter 8 Conclusion; Index