2126 / Canouvn M. Rovcens bills in my some Food; you got folks who care about you For istuhs Wearin’ Straight H ime? i never could heep my edges and kitchen straight even afer Supercoo/straighterPerm had burned wes ni ye imy edges and kitchen did fever get the message that they ‘was not supposed to go back home. th yeah. cages and Mtehens will tell that they know where they na'chal home is at! saying "pay the talk bland buy, 1969 is Ni, fi Literature since 1975 eee ee The fabled awakening in Harlem during the 1920s notwithstanding, one could argue that the true African American ren last quarter ofthe twentieth century. The impact of African Arm rear: performers household names; in musi, withthe explaston of rap and gospel and the incision Ul oc, programming as a constituent of prestigious cultural institutions sue we Carnegie Hall and Lincaln Center; in theater, where musials and drones by African Americans became staples on and a Broschvay and in the viewed atts, as museums and private collectors purchased works hy African Ament «am painters and seulptors in inezeasing numbers. Never belore had so mach dlstingushed writing been produced by black Americans. Tont Morrison became the frst Afican American Nobel lnuteate in iteraune 1995, by which time her novels had won a shea of awards as well ay secure place inthe American literary canon. In 1990, August Wilson's The Phawo Lorees \won the playwright a second Pulitzer Prize for drama. He continues to work ona eyele of ten plays—one foreach decade: sion ofthe variegated African American experience ofthe twentith century. In sharp contrast to earlier periods when anly one of two black writers could riety brominence at a time, Morrison and Wilson did nt stand alone, From Maya Angelou in autobiography to Pulitzer Prize~winners Rita Dove and Yoon? Komunyakaa in poetty to Charles Johnson and John Edgar Wideman in fee tion to Neozake Shange and George Wolle in theater to Alice Walker in the essay, dozens of writers yommered critical acclaim, lage audiences, or bot The insttutionalization of Afican American literature ata subject of aces demic inquiry ensured that these weters and their euders were keenly awane ofthe tradition in which they worked. Whether the writers embraced the tradition or resisted its premises, theie work extended its contour Critical trends that distinguished African American literatore during the contemporary period ure (1) the acknowledgment of the maliplicity of Ales an American identities; (2) a renewed inverest in history. us writers upline the psychological and spiritual lives of African Americans during slavery nd ‘eregation (3) the emergence af a community of black women writing) 2 continuing exploration of music and other forms of vernacular cultere on soringboords for literary innovation and theorctical analysis; and (3) the influence of Aftican American literary scholarship, MOVEMENT LeGacies The historical conditions that enabled this lit ‘ete set in motion by the civil rights movement 2127 ry and cultural renaissance in the 19505 and 1960s. The2128 / Livensrune since 1975 ‘movement initiated a national conversation about racism, Iain it ‘moral wrong and identifying those who took action against as morl agent, As the nightly television news documented, African Americans were in the vanguard of the movement, and their sense of who they were was forever changed. At the same time that they saw in themselves and their childven the capacity for moral heroism, they identified with Africans who were wage ing a similar struggle against colonialism in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, Black American leaders including Martin Luther King Jr» Malcolm X, and Whitney Young, traveled to Africa, and thcie reports From the continent strengthened the sense of connection that blacks in the United States felt with ts people. The change in consciousness was accompanied by a change in material conditions. By agitating for opportunities For equal education, better jobs, and decent housing, the civil rights movement created a sub: intial middle class among black Americans that would In turn constitute ‘an audience to which black writers could appeal. By the late 1960s the Black Power and antiwar movements had taken hold, especially among blacks on college campuses. For the latter, the goal was no tegration, but separatism, The Vietnam War, in which blacks served in much greater numbers than were proportionate to their percentage of the Population, was another politcal flash point that radicalized a significant segment of the community. Some effects of these political movements on attistic production were immediate; others were long term and far reaching, Manifestoes of the Black Arts movement, the designation assumed by cultural workers allied with Black Power activists, insisted on art that was functional, collective, and committed to revolution and change. The pre- scriptiveness that resulted proved to0 constricting, and the dictates of the Black Arts movement were soon discarded. But the movement heralded a shift toward art that was for and about the black community. ‘This inward turn revealed communities that had never been monolithic. ‘As the literature increasingly reflected, African American communities dif. fered according to geography and region, clas, and ethnicity. The most el- brated poetic voices of the 1960s spoke in the brisk accents of narthern cities. But many African Americans lived in the South, spoke in the slower cadences of the region, and drew from the well of politcal experience that was the civil rights movement. The decade of the 1960s that Alice Walker depicts in her poems and essays differs markedly from that of Amit Baral, Inthe North, Midwest, and West, black people lived in small towns as often as in big cities. John Washington, the protagonist of David Bradley's novel The Chaneysville Incident, returns home to rural Pennsylvania, Morrison's titular protagonist Sula retuens to the Bottom, the black neighborhood in 8 small fictional Ohio city, and characters in Sherley Anne Williams's "Tell Martha Not to Moan" inhabit the farm towns of California's San Joaquin Valley. As the literature reflected the regional diversity of black communities, i revealed an inereasing clas stratification as well. Educational and profes. sonal opportunities that became available in the wake of the efil rights ‘movement widened the gop between the middle class and the poor. Welters explored the tensions that ensued and the divide that opened even between members ofthe same family, Wideman’s Brothers and Keepers isa poignant ‘ase in point. Far from monolithic, the black community was ethnically siverse. Paule Marshall's 1959 novel, Brown Gir, Brownstones, was among —_.. Iwrnopuerion / 2129 {he first to focus on a character's coming-of-age in a neighborhood of West Indion immigrants who live with, yet apart from, the southern-bomn bleck migrants who are their neighbors. The novel’ “Bajan” (Barbadian) charex {ers bring with them to Brooklyn, along with their reams and asprctions ew vernacular és well as a different sense of “home.” Brown Gil mac a harbinger. The progressive movements around issues of race led to the amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965 and 1990, which, respectively, ended quotas based on vera numberof immigrants allowed into the United States each year, Sige nificant clemographie changes occurred inthe black population. By the tun (of the century, stories of immigrants of African descent from throughout the Caribbean as wellos Africa and Europe confirmed the Impossibiite of dere ing a unified black experience. Although the women's movement is popularly identified with the white middle class, several ofits most visionary voices belonged to African Amer ican women. Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, and Audre Larde analyzed the inextricablity of sexism and racism. They protested racism in: the women’s movement and sexism in the Black Power moverient and chal, {enged activists in both to see the common roots oftheir oppression. Address. ing those African Americans, both men and women, whe saw feminism a diversion from the struggle against racial oppression, Lorde insisted: "Black Women have particular and legitimate issues which affect our lives as Black women, and addressing those issues does not make us less Black.” Black feminists argued that the simultaneous oppressions of race, gender, {nd class defined the lives of many African American women. Any seategy {or liberation would have to take these interlocking factors into account ‘The movement for gay rights was the last of the progressive causes spawned by the struggle for civil rights. t protested discrimination on the basis of sexual preference. Lorde and Jordan became leaders in this effort, Essex Hemphill and Samuel Delany. The movement claimed james Baldwin as a forefather, although Baldwin did not always claim the move. iment. Those who cid claim i fought to be accepted as “black” among guys tnd as “gay” amongblacks. Like the feminist movement, the pay rights neve, ‘ment was highly controversial among Aftican Americans. It served ¢= yet another reminder thatthe differences among black Americans were by many ‘measures as great as the differences between them and white Americana, Multiple threads make up the weave of contemporary African American if and literature. DETOURS THROUGH THE PAST ‘As college students joined the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, they also fought for a more inclusive curriculum on campus. Black studies departments were established around the country. Historians examined the Past from a black perspective, and their scholarship soon sparked waiters” Imaginations. Two works by historian John Blassingame are cases in point, While slavery is among the most frequently studied topics in U.S. histori. oaraphy, few historians documented the slaves’ point of view before Blassin. game's The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Ante-Sellum Seach2130 J Livenatune since 1975 tine argued shat inadequate documentation exsed, a gino correct wth his massive anthology Slee Urn scholars bean teaching sve nara es ‘many now consider ihe foundation af the Alcan American lean ese Nathan Hgins published the fst hist of the Harlem Hersey 192!» inating the ihongsing stay of Ca important chaps aa history. Hisorion Gerda Lemer elite lack Women i White we (1973), which father revised the understanding of Atay Ameen in US. history ay bath the victims of oppression and the pene ach Toni Morssn, then an editor a Randor House, wis tke yd fe behind The Black Bonk (1974, ak hsanym the form of este Mates collected posters and patent, bilo sale prt and bees Pe Lograps, formals or conjure, and interpretations of dreams, Like thes deme histories, td nat highligh the accomplishment of nese see and women recovered the experiences uf heretofore anonyme flue rary anthologies such as Houston Balers Black Liss wp oes (1971), Stephen Hendersor's Understanding the New Black Peery ck Spucch and Blck Music ws Poetic References 1972) and May Hees Wea inguon’s Black Eyed Susans: Clase Sion By and Mbou Back Wenn (1975) eeuperated poetry and prose that pointed tothe eustenee of bcd literary tration, Building om this tradition, movie hep te eet ce Yersions ofthe pst. Eres Gaines wrote novel inthe oom ae eed autobiography, The Autobiogapy of Mis jne Pita 199 chet ede large sudionce—eapecally after twas hgeed ton lersoor eet te Haley Hors (1976) vas toned into a tlrion mintscres thes bees the ak ofthe nation, as U.S. houscholstaned im highly anak he Jury of one family rm reedom im ites shoe inthe United States. Whaher history, citicim, or Retin, thi werk eee understood in terms that el Stat Halldeserbes The acon Uenty “nity is never finshed. crs Ino the ature By eae a cansiructive detour ofthe pst Slavery a long chapter in the American pos, ganze th imaginations bck titers. While may cater mies ev oly share sane ns seen it aa way of understanding the pes tom oe perspective, slavery reprsces 4 wound iv the oreo present-day Acan Amerieans that his mt yt healed, ranks ance is the moral ot onthe mation’ sou that mus he conlfomed ed teed Without question, the history of slavery contansdramatlesorceolghet spill sural, Consequemly writer imagined teehee lines of enslaved individual the tis tht boted them se fee sod ee mnie, andthe set of wl hat were equicd foe esstanee and soe Among the notable examples are David Dradli's The Chansevile hed (1981), Octavia Butler's Kindred (1979), Charen Johnsos Ovhecing de (1982) and AfidalePrsage (1985), Morison’ Son of Solomen (19 od Beloved (1987), Naylor's Mama Day (1988), Capt Phiipes Ceodene {1991) and Grong the River (1993), Ishmael eed’ Flt fo Gonads (1976), and Sherey Anne Williams's Des ve (1986), Poe, hos Wehetn Dea as History (1967) and Rta Dove in Themes aul Beulah (90s ere similely determine to cure what Morrison deemed the stations see anound the history of saver. history that bean fot Aion noe ’ Iwrnopuerion / 2131 and lasted 250 years. The stories they told were of course, ay di ts aheurics wee fom ane another Bly wtb shennan Rairoad in western Pennsylvania, while in Beloved Moreson’s characters escape from slavery in Kentucky to “freedom” in Obio, Jones imagined plantation in Brazil, while eharacters in Crossing the River and Desse Rose trekked across the United States, secking freeom in the West. Naylor invented an all-black community inthe Sea Islands where the legacy of slay cy was sell sufficiency, while Johnson tested Enlightenment ideas of Tr dem and eins. toss suchas Orde Paterson, Sen ad Social Death (1982) and Paul Gilroy’ The Black Atlante (1993), scholars confirmed the insights af these Fictions when they began to perceive slavery s=acenal clement inthe development of mori Detours through the past did not necessarily reich back o the nin century. Inthe 1970s many African Americans Tost faith ration; others were eoncerned lest they bes a : erfallowed the dire which they were now beingallowed to leave, Many writers oll Upon returning to his hometown of Mobile Alabama, Murray wrote, [T]he neighborhood that was the eenter ofthe world as you first knew it had been razed, completely industrialized, and enclosed in a chainlink fence by the Scott Paper Towel Company.” in Train Whistle Guitar, Murray reinvents that word in fio, Angus memoir ike revise a depression ea South and re-creates both the dignity of women ke her grandmother Mama Henderson and teacher Mes. Flowers und the randomness of attacks on hard-earned sense of themselves. Surely, the must Iriel evoeation of the communities that once nurtured the souls af black folk isthe opening pas- sage of Sula; cellingly, here the Botiom, a name that was once widely applied to the black seetions of southern towns, is locate in the Midves: in that place, where they tore the nightshade and blackberry patches was oc nighborboe. I too in the is above the wl wn fedallion and spread all the way to the river. Its called the suburbs hows wen Hack pple Hed cht walled the Bom THE COMMUNITY OF BLACK WOMEN WRITING calls the of black he emergence of what Hortense Spills call“ ‘ ‘tomenwtng one ofthe hallmars ofthe coxtemporry perio, Evens in 1970 soe it rival The Black Woman, an antag edited by Tot a hii eda ley ack women in thi ‘nother impetus was the recuperation of literary precursors Jessie Fauset, Nets Lane and Zara Net Hurston, hone cost slo a aon Maes and Ms was teprinted kn 1970, A that tne, Htonvemuned 02132 / Livenarune since 1975 her blogropher Rebert Hemenways words, ‘one of the tead authors in America” Het work would soon reach husthede nt thousands fender would provides ouchvone Wr einen seneration aswell The yar 1970 sow the publcntiogchemeocorie novels by Morrison (The Bluest ye) and Walker (The Third Life of Grange etn) Perl writen an dep unin hark omy eee, snl appreion an hie ane cose eee mpm ind oh nce cir hethn ang cous anger and apart sug, Angalons ea Wk a Bhd Sings pertook move tm ha mood, hate es dese ne cor Nowisonseel=oms the apes gassed carci of power bse on race cle and gar no ne earch moe vulnerable than oor back ge In theese ek erence wee eT critique of ssi ideology. ae a sary depart om may of thermal precursors, Morison, Wa ker; and thei female contemporaries did nor focdeon the wanton cess ters of blacks and whites serom te olor ite The mnenecal athe the hea of nara by Black male ers bore Ree Don Ralph Elson to Amir Baraka cid not tae center stage Racion eonstned Injor concer. But for these wre, the mont el aes racism were played ou in the mont innate ated Helene Prato traumas pull soon pevedcontovasiat Wee at nee Accused of bashing black men snd, worse of beng dont tee ee sample, Shangesfor colored gi whohorecoradeat needakenae ae lewis ef chocopoc tnt ma cle indchcd en a Black Ars movement forts pote ecu Ueseeite aa ee very when tvs aed on Sdn 17 Ces one one nop of tack male crc, none f wham appaned on seer ae ate female characters whose stories were being told. “What id mean fora black woman toe sy ars nour grandmothers tine? n ur gene randimother’ day ake Wace ne sete Search of Out Mother’ Gardens whch often they of ce oe Great and dines tinct Dak nomena Deve been the anser wher gucsions csc enough ostopthe ieas e e ines generations of Hack women anus he rcceed hee omer and the eras of uile making, baking and gardening, which Walker ce luster av art The ponte Waker dame of hee ether ee ee Porta of am oc “ordering the unis inter aeeee Oe Best. *Many wer share Wales impulse oe igus sp shies reece Mona ps hme hep st aos lagu cr tar he owe whe Naf enone her prougoist Mama Day. midland ctojee conc ea hea ts uit bake, ‘and garden superlatively. In Sula Morrison creates the “mage aie ra Peace cnet whor il tarde cue sag tober own pertoml conception bath bem ed en ‘THE INNER CITY Black mal writers tuned invardas wll In his“ 8‘ invardas wel. In hie “Hlomewood” logy (Hii Place, Daralah, and Sent for Yo Yesterday) John Edgne Wideseor mune Inrnopuerion / 2133 both the Pittsburgh neighborhood in which his characters have lived for generations and the psychological terain that defines them as individuals Sid as members of an extended family, Telling the history ofthat family in ‘he language in which hey lived it and suramoning the spirs of theirances- {ors through memories and dreams, Wideman writes fiction thats innovative in both content and form. All but one of August Wilson's plays are also set in Pittsburgh, and thei: textured representations of African American culture ts i evolved through the twentieth century are at the core of Wilson's art, ‘As he states, “T]he field of manners and rituals of social intercourse—the ‘musi. speech, rhythms, eating habits, religious belies, gestures, notions of Common sense, atitudes foward sex, concepts of beauty and justice, and the ‘eeponses to pleasure end pain—have enabled [African Americans) to survive The loss of our political will and the disruption of our history.” If Wilson's drama is grounded in the everyday expressions of African Americans, his often soaring monologues revel the eapaciousness oftheir concems, their heroic aspitaions, thelr moral triumphs and defeats, For example, Joe Tumer’s Come and Gene, set in 1911, recounts the experiences af migrants newly arrived inthe ety alienated from is ways and ultimately hopeful that they can make a future there. By the 1980s, the period in which Wilson's lates play, King Healey Il s set, despair is pervasive: “the people wandering allover the place. They got lot. They don't even know the story of how they got From tit ota.” Ofcourse, this is precisely the story Wilson's dramas tl THE 1980s AND 19905 in King Hedley 11 reflected the mood in. much of urban black the 1980s, The protagonists sense of himself may be royal, ‘of his prospects he tres to move from a career of petty crime to one of entrepreneurship is grim. Shrinking employment opportu- nities and rising rates of drug abuse and violence took their toll on inner city black neighborhoods during the Reagan years, a time when such problems were low on the national agenda. While Martin Luther King Jr's birthday was made a national holiday in 1986, most initiatives put forward by Tights organizations were rejected. Rather than the guarantor of civil rights, the federal government began tobe viewed as antagonistic tothe civil rights ‘agenda particularly to programs of affirmative action, In response, Jesse Jackson waged vigorous campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomt- ration in 1984 ond 1988; nether was suecessful but both led to significant increases in the number of repstered black voters. More African Americans than ever before wor elective office on the local and state levels: in 1989 Douglas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia, the first black governor of a state since Reconstruction. Overwhelmingly, black voters supported Dem- feratic candidates, But a small group of black conservatives, among them essayists Stanley Crouch and Shelby Stecle, drew notice. In 1991 President George H. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. The nomination, already intensely controversial, Became even mote so when law professor Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexval harassment. After televised hearings and the Serate vote, Justice Thomas took his seat. “The Thomas-Hill hearings initiated a series of media spectacles that focused on African Americans inthe 1990s. In 1991 Rodney King was beaten2134 J Livenarune since 1975) bby Los Angeles police officers after a rexstence of an incriminating videotape, the officers were acquitted of all ‘charg, violence erupted in Los Angeles that resulted in thirty-eight deaths, four thousand arrests, and damage estimated at more than $300 million. In 1995, 0. J. Simpson, a former professional foothal player and sports com: mentator, was tried for the murder of his evwife and another man. Gavel- to-gavel clevision coverage made the tral one ofthe most watched in history Reaction to Simpson's acquittal divided substantially along racial lines, a most whites denounced the verdict and most blacks apolauded i, Issues of police misconduct were raised in Simpson's defense, issues that were set in bold reli again in 1999, when New York City police officers killed am unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, ‘Some of the idealist Fervor of the 1960s was reignited, asthe struggle against apartheid in South Africa gained momentum during the 1980s. On college campuses, in churches, in corporations, and in Congress, African “Americans were in the forefront of the movement for sanctions against the apartheid regime. When Nelson Mandela toured the United States in 1990, alter his release from twenty-seven years in prison, he recived a hero's wel come. For blacks, his visit was the culmination of a growing identification, both political and cultural, with Africa. Human rights activists in the United States had long made common cause with anticolo rm the 1960s onward, black popula culture inthis country assimilated African and pseudorAlrican elements, including names, hairstyles, dress, and the cele bration of Kwanzaa, a holiday ereated in the United States by Ron Karenga. In the academy, Molefi Asante formulated the ideolegy of Afrocentrism, which called for scholarship based on Africa as the center of eivilization, ‘Although hi ly accepted by other scholars, Asante won 1 popular following, ‘Writers across a broad specteum incorporated Afficun images and belie! systems into their work, Examples include Tina McElroy’ Buby ofthe Family, ‘Marshall's Praisesong forthe Widow, Mortison’s Beloved, Shange’s Sassafras, igh-speed chase, When, despite the Cypress, & Indigo, Wideman’s Damballak, and Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. African cosmo i et poetry. The figure of the Morrison, and Naylor reflects 9 reconnection with Afeican spiritual and eul- ‘ural rituals. Johnson in Middle Passage and Walker in The Color Purple and Possesing the Secret of Joy invent African settings for their fiction. Many African Ameriean writers cite the influence on their work of African writers, notably Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ayi Kiweh Armah, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Camara Laye, Ngugi sa Thiong’o, Sembene Ousmane, Flora Napa, and Wole Soyinka, the first African writer to reecive the Nobel Prize for literature RE-MAPPING ICAN AMERICAN LITERARY TERRAIN ‘A consciousness grew among some African Americans who saw themselves both as eltizens of the United States and as members of a transnational community of people of African descent. This consciousness rellected both the inereasing influence of Airican and Afro-Caribbean writers om the devel- Iwrnonuertow (2135 opment of African American literature and the fact that a number of black titers in the United States were themselves immigrants. Jamaies Kinead, ‘who came to the United States from Antigua “the small place” to whieh she flten returns in her writing, is among the best known, although she resists being identified with any school. Kinesis ritique of colonialism s string, 1s fs her representation of the compliated relationship between mothers and daughters under a colonialist regime. Edwidge Dantiat’s characters ly back and forth betscen Haiti and Brooklyn ina circuit of travel that is typical of tventy-fist-century immigrants. In its themes and images, Dantas Wwork, like Kincaid’, often resonates as well with that ofthe community of black women writing in the United States. Born in St. Kitts, inthe Britsh West Indies, und cased in the United Kingdom, Car Philips, who now lives part ofthe time in New York City, has reimagined the history of Africans xighout dhe diaspora i his novels. Whether the Barbadian characters Hilton Als draws in The Women, or the sewings tht shift between the United States and Jamaica in Michelle Cliff's fiction, oF the interfacing of Afro-Caribbean and Asian-Ceribbean cultures in Pamela Powell's novel The Pagoda, the terran of Arian American literature is being e-mapped. EXPERIMENTAL TEXTS / FUTURISTIC FICTIONS ‘Less populur though no less important than detours to the past were fictions that imagined the future and poems and plays whose formal risk taking pro- vided the pleasure of the text. Experimentalism in African American litera. lure dates back atleast to Jean Toomer’s Cane (1923). Wi ‘Adrienne Kennedy and Clarence Major have been similarly nificantly, Toomer wrote drama as well as ition and poetry. His expression- iste plays Barlo and Natalie Mann are precursors of Kennedy's Funsiyhowse of a Negro and A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White. Foresweating realism and a linear plot, Kennedy's plays represent dreamseapes in which images from history and popular culture bump up against personal memo and private nightmares. Identity is fuid, never fixed in Kennedy's plays, a {ult shared by the work of Suzan-Lori Parks, whose play Topdog/Undendog won the Pulitaer Prize for drama in 2002, Elements of jazz performance—rffs and improvisation, sound and thythm—partally inspice the poctic experiments of Yusef Komunyakaa, Nathaniel Mackey, and Harryette Mullen. Komunyakaa, who has co-edited three volumes of jazz poetry, pays homage to musicians—"painful gods jive talk through /bloodstained reeds & shiny brass”—as he tries to imagine hows it Feels "to scream for help through a horn.” Working like a consummate jazzman, Mackey extends tradition, blends cross-cultural influences, and establishes a signature sound in his poetry and fiction. Describing the jus- {aposition of influences on one of her poems, Mullen imagines it “as the place where Sappho meets the blues at the crossroads.” Fragmented and Gensely allusive, postmodern black poetry challenges readers, especially those less fluent in the multiple literary tations in which the authors work. [But it rewards those readers who persevere. ‘Science fiction offers the possibilty of inventing a workd and gender categories no longer apply, which s perhaps one2136 / Lrvenarune since 1975 ne a preitoners: Derr fourthousad yal haacter no ape nse lane bierenir ee dace ets sr oe eicleg tencremien teers fers he pat nd present silane o Mh bth ow ms Se cea et cpaeatastae tasers peace esl erm feoreonge ro er eee er eer a OLD GENRES/NEW TRENDS ton Baker, Henry Louis Cates jr and Deborah MeDowel, penned haunting Sree ei ae ay eg meee Fats Weller oct band inthe 1920s and The Last Poets had conde the st icy le sor Nita the millions, the number of novels published by African Americans: increased sree ech is ea Exence, new publications like Black sues ook Review and OBR Te a Iwrnopuerion / 2137 Book Review targeted the book-buying black public. So did Internet sites of a nearly infinite variety. Finally, scholarship about African American literatur freerican writers has flourished during the eantemporary period, Iniced rary scholars have documented, analyzed, and to an extent helped pac duce the remissance among African American writers. At the sare the est and wrters have been among the most influential Hterary erties, By {he 1980s scholarly studies had hegun to appear in some number Addises, Gavle's The Way of the New World: The Black Novel tn America (193), Frobert Stepics Behind the Vil: Siudy of Afro-American Neratve (1979), Houston Baker's The Journey Back: Issues in Black Literature ond Criticion, $1980), Barbara Christian’ Black Women Noveliss: The Development of « ration, 1882-1976 (1980), and Donald Gibson's The Poities of Literary Expression: A Study of Major Black Writers (1981) are examples af the vvlere of critical studies in this period. Anthologies of critical essays such Roscann Bell, Bettye Fisher, and Beverley Guy Sheftalls Sturdy: Black Bridges: Visiors of Black Women in Literature (1979); Deer Fisher and Robert Stepto's Afto-American Literature: The Reconstruction of lnsteection (1979); Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Black Literature and Literary Theory (1983), Michael Harper and Robert Stepto's Chants of Saints: A Gathering of Afro, Americar: Literature, Art, and Scholarship (1979), and Ne Bester alters Black American Literatire and Humanism (1978) suggested differen: approaches to ceaching and theorizing about black literatures, Poets and novelists were major voices in this critical conversation, Prac Ueally every coatemporary writer in The Norton Anthology of Affiean Amer: fica Literature has either written essays that recov {Mluminated the relationship between the African American oral tradition sack African American literatures, and/or crafied literary theories derived freva his or her own literary practice. After writing pethaps the most influencl {fading of her own fition in an essay titled "Unspeakable Things Unspoken Jioni Morrison published a widely cited volume of essays, Pleying inthe Dark (1992), articu ating the theory that American literary lassies such as Mek ville’: Moly: Dick and Havethorne’s romances reflect the Aftican presence in American life, even when race is not theie subject. Morrison's evtical inten ention was one catalyst in moving American literary study to take greater account of race in the formation ofall literary traditions in the United Stare Unlike thei predecessors, the younger writers ofthe contemporary period Sudied Aftican American literature in the classroom. For example, Naylor asserts that reading Morrison's The Bluest Eye as a college student gave hg the authority to begin writing fiction hersell Her novels, especial Lowden its and Manca Day, acknowledge her debt to Morrison, Hurston, and Wal fr as well as to Dante's fferao and Shakespeare's The Tempo, Wolker, ‘te first found Hurston’s name in a footnote as she was doing rereurch i {short story, claimed her asa literary foremother, wrate essays about hen End deseribed her own novel The Color Purple as a “love letter to Zorg’ Scholars, notakiy Henry Louis Gates Je, have subsequently Mentficd che Ratern of sharzd themes and tropes in’ the two authars' texts, As Gates apanstrates in his critical study The Signifjing Monkey (1988), black tows “alk to other black texts and the art of signifying i simaltneoustyordl ne re and by African ered older writers,2138 / Liveratune since 1975 literary. He asserts, moreover, that the African American literary tradition is ‘double-voiced"—that is, it reflects writers’ reading of Western texts, but it “repeats with a difference, a black difference that manifests itself in specific language use.” Theories of intertextuality have become central to African ‘American literary study. Hurston first defined signifying as a cultural practice in Mules and Men, Gates appropriated the term in his attempt “to locate and identify how the black tradition had theorized about itself." Much African American literary theory was similarly tethered to black vernacular tradition, Stepto's Behind the Veil employed call and response as a metaphor for intertexuality. In his influential Blues, Ideology and Afro-American Literature, Baker extrapolated “a vernacular theory” from the blues. Deborah MeDowell posited The Changing Same, a figure borrowed from Baraka's study of black music, for intertexuality in black women’s writing, while Mae Henderson fused post stucturalist and feminist theory in “Speaking in Tongues,” a trope derived From the Bible by way of the black sanctified church. Even as they created theories that took into account the "signifyin(g) black difference,” cities of African American literature engaged in readings from the wide range of per= spectives that existed in the academy, such as formalism, Marxism, psycho analysis, poststructuralism, and feminism. By the 1990s, scholars were producing biographies, critical monographs, anthologies, and works of lit. ‘rary theory in unprecedented quantity Their ideological investments were various, their methodologies were diverse, and so to0 were their conclusions. Feminist crities, for example, were skeptical of the concept of tradition, which as Mary Helen Washington rated, had often been used to “exclude or mistepresent women.” Spillers asserted that * ‘tradition’ for black women’s writing community is a matrix of discontinuities that partially articulate various periods of consciousness in the history of an Aftican-American people.” Hazel Carby advocated that “black feminist criticism he regarded as a problem, not a solution, as a sign that should be interrogated, a locus of contradictions.” Queer theorists including Robert Reid-Pharr and Charles Nero likewise challenged the assumptions underlying the concept of tradition and the metaphors of family that often accompanied it. From its beginning as an academic subject, African American literary study has been interdisciplinary; Sterling Brown, to name one pionect, was as interested in folklore and music as in formal literature. The literature is now taught in African American studies, ethnic studies, and women's studies ints as well as in English. In the 1980s and 1990s, this interdise ity contributed to the development of cultural studies, a diverse inter. disciplinary field that sees culture not as a static "canon’ or “tradition” but as the emerging and dynamic product of a network of antagonistic power relations. Not surprisingly, cultural studies has been profoundly concerned with African American culture. Acting on the premise that identity today is formulated through interaction with film, video, and mass-produced music as wel as, if nt more than, in relation to traditional social structures, African American cultural erties such as Michael Erie Dyson, bell hooks, Wah- rneema Lubiano, Valerie Smith, Michele Wallace, and Cornel West have ‘tumed their critical attention to black popular culture. They also use the too's of textual analysis to clarify the meanings of media spectacles such as Munnar / 2139 ALBERT MURRAY b. 1916 Albert Murray's carecr as a weiter has been distinguished by his insistent dive to reat, in fiction and nonfiction, the literary equivalents of blues and jazz. Murray the modernist has undertaken this project under the auspices of Elia, Heraingay, Joyce, Faulner, and especially Thomas Mann—all highly conscious writers whe ‘employ mythie paterns and a wide range of intellectual und artiste references togive thei writing the peculiar weight and force that define a ital aspect ef the modern, But Murray wears thes influences lightly. Ina voice unmistakably his own, be brings to life the litle-xplored aspect of Afrean American experience that vews the short falls and tragedies of fe im much the way they are regarded in blaceidiom music, ‘where trouble fs taken for ranted ("Trouble, cube," one blues songays, "ve had ‘call my days”) but where defeat is never conceded. Murray's heroes learn to regard their lives as fay tales and romances in which, whether they receive official recog nition oF not, they achieve a style of living and loving and making ar that transcends the bounds of offcildom. Ultimately, they achieve a way of life~evenin the violent briar patches of segregated Americawhich, lke the music of Lous Armstrong and Duke Ellington isthe envy ofthe world. Born on May 12, 1916, in Nokomis, Alabama, Albert Lee Murray wasadopted soon ropper, dockworker, railway erosste cutter, ond sawmill hand Hugh Muray and homemaker Matte James) Murray. Murray grew up in Magarine Point, ouside of Mobile, where he discovered a world at once stifingly provincial tnd open to possibilty In hs fiction and ersays, Mobile san international city com parable to New Orleans, having is own complex transportation systerm, by land and by sea; ns own Mardi Gras; and a culture where 0 wide variety of types of blocs Whites, and Indians interacted. At Mobile County Training School, Moray fell unde the influence of the prncipal, Benjamin Francis Baker, who regarded him as par of ‘the New Neyro movement, the “Talented Tenth,” whose goals involved loyalty to past and fature generations of African Americans and the wil to assume leadceship on 8 broad scale. Winning recognition in basketball, baseball, Football and track nd Feld—and as the best llaround student-~Murray received a scholarship t attend college and enrolled atthe Tuskegee Institute in September 1935. ‘At Tuskegee, Murry undertook an intense program of literary stlles, reading sssigned texts along wih unassigned new works by such cities ax Edmund Wilson and Morton Zabel, which encouraged and enhanced his study of the ltemary moderns He also tuned into the national radio broadeasts of Duke Ellington, Earl Hines; and other jaze masters whose work was fat becoming a consuming passion. Though they did not become close friends until later, Murray the undergraduate was aware of another ambitious readzt at Tuskegee, music major Ralph Ellison, Murray pursued graduate study atthe University of Michigan before returning to ‘Tuskegee Institute (in 1942), where he taught English and directed theatrical pro ‘duction In 1943, he enlisted inthe ale force. He served through Worl! War It and ‘continued, in active and inactive service at home and abroad until his trement as ‘8 major in 1962, Betwecn stints of active service, he received his master's degre rom