Introduction 1
1 Mapping the Rhetoric,Politics,and Poetics of Representation in the Contemporary African American Novel 9
A Critique of Eurocentric,Afrocentric,and Americentric Cultural Theories,Critics,and Criticism 13
A Postcolonial African Americentric,Neomasculinist Theory of Antiblack Racism and Internal Colonialism 29
An African Americentric Vernacular Theory of Culture and Identity 44
Core Black American Culture 49
The Vernacular Tradition and the Rhetoric,Dialectics,and Dialogics of the Contemporary African American Novel 56
2 The Roots of the Contemporary African American Novel 59
Sociohistorical,Sociocultural,and Sociopsychological Landscape 60
African Oral Narrative Roots 73
African American Folk Roots 75
Residually Oral Forms:Oratory,Myth,Legend,Tale,andsong 78
Literary Sources and Branches 84
ABOLITIONIST LITERATURE 85
THE KING JAMES BIBLE 87
POPULAR FICTION 89
3 Mapping the Peaks and Valleys of the African American Novel(1853-1962) 94
Early Historical Romance,Social Realism,and Beyond 94
Antebellum and Civil War Novels(1853-1865) 95
Postbellum,Reconstruction,and Post-Reconstruction Novels(1865-1902) 96
The Pre-World War I Novel of the Old Guard(1902-1917) 98
ROMANCE,REALISM,AND NATURALISM 100
LEGACY OF THE OLD GUARD 103
Modernism,the Harlem Renaissance,and the Search for New Modes of Narrative(1917-1936) 104
POETIC REALISM AND HISTORICAL ROMANCE 108
GENTEEL REALISM:ASSIMILATIONISM,NATIONALISM,OR BICULTURALISM 108
FOLK ROMANCE:PRIMITIVISM,PASTORALISM,AND ANCESTRALISM 110
FOLK REALISM:RELIGION,MUSIC,HUMOR,AND LANGUAGE 114
SATIRIC REALISM:THE VICES AND FOLLIES OF THE FOLK AND BLACK BOURGEOISIE 115
Richard Wright and the Triumph of Naturalism(1936-1952) 117
WRIGHT AND THE"CHICAGO SCHOOL" OF SOCIOLOGY 118
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY 118
THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT 121
THE TRIUMPH OF NATURALISM 121
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE NOVELS OF THE FORTIES 122
Myth,Legend,and Ritual in the Novels of the Fifties(1952-1962) 124
BEYOND NATURALISM 125
MYTH, LEGEND,AND RITUAL 128
4 Forms of Neorealism:Critical and Poetic Realism(1962-1983) 130
The Black Power and Black Arts Movements 130
The Women's Rights and Black Feminist Movements 134
Literary Continuity and Change:Modernism and Neorealism 138
Critical and Poetic Neorealism 140
CRITICAL REALISM 141
JOHN OLIVER KILLENS(1916-1987) 142
JOHN A[LFRED] WILLIAMS(1925-) 147
ALICE[MALSENIOR]WALKER(1944-) 153
GAYL[AMANDA]JONES(1949-) 161
[MILTONA]TONI[MIRKIN]CADE BAMBARA(1939-1995) 168
POETIC REALISM AND THE GOTHIC FABLE 174
[CHLOE ANTHONY]TONI[WOFFORD]MORRISON(1931-) 174
Continuity in the Novel of the Sixties and Seventies 182
5 Modernism and Postmodernism(1962-1983) 186
From Modernism and Structuralism to Poststructuralism and Postmodernism 187
Fabulation,Legend,and Neoslave Narrative 195
MARGARET [ABIGAIL]WALKER(1915-1998) 195
ERNEST J[AMES]GAINES(1933-) 199
WILLIAM MELVIN KELLEY(1937-) 207
RONALD L.FAIR(1932-) 213
Fabulation,Romance,and Fantasy 216
JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN(1941-) 217
CLARENCE[LEE]MAJOR(1936-) 226
Fabulation and Satire 232
CHARLES STEVENSON WRIGHT(1932-) 232
[GEORGE HAROLD]HAL BENNETT(1930-) 235
ISHMAEL REED(1938-) 240
Change in the Novel of the Sixties and Seventies 248
6 Continuity and Change in Ethnic Tropes of Identity Formation(1983-2001) 250
The Contemporary Black Aesthetic:Afrocentric and Diasporic Tropes of African American Identity and Community 257
PAULE[VALENZA PAULINE BURKE]MARSHALL(1929-) 263
ALBERT[LEE] MURRAY(1916-) 270
GLORIA NAYLOR(1950-) 277
AL[BERT JAMES] YOUNG(1939-) 282
DAVID[HENRY]BRADLEY[JR.](1950-) 286
LEON[RICHARD]FORREST(1937-1997) 295
7 The New Black Aesthetic:Eurocentric Metafiction and African Americentric Tropes of Transcultural Identity and Community(1983-2001) 301
CHARLES[RICHARD]JOHNSON(1948-) 305
NATHANIEL[ERNEST]MACKEY(1947-) 311
TREY ELLIS[WILLIAM ARTHUR ELLIS III](1962-) 316
PERCIVAL L[EONARD]EVERETT(1956-) 323
COLSON WHITEHEAD(1969-) 328
8 Contemporary African American Paraliterature:Science/Speculative Fiction,Gay/Lesbian,and Detective/Mystery Novels and Romances(1983-2001) 333
Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Novels 335
SAMUEL[RAY]DELANY [JR.](1942-) 337
OCTAVIA[ESTELLE] BUTLER(1947-) 343
Gay/LesbianNovelsandRomances 349
LARRY DUPLECHAN(1956-) 355
E[VERETTE]LYNN HARRIS(1957-) 358
Detective/Mystery Novels 366
BARBARA NEELY(1941-) 369
WALTER[ELLIS]MOSLEY(1952-) 375
Conclusion 383
Notes 389
Selected Bibliography 429
Index 463