James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and the Rhetorics of Black Male Subjectivity

Kirjan James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and the Rhetorics of Black Male Subjectivity (2018) on kirjoittanut Aaron Ngozi Oforlea. Kirjan kieli on englanti, ja sen on kustantanut Ohio State University Press. Kirja on laajuudeltaan 278 sivua ja se on pokkari.

InJames Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and the Rhetorics of Black Male Subjectivity, Aaron Ngozi Oforlea explores the rhetorical strategies that Baldwin s and Morrison s black male characters employ as they negotiate discourses of race, class, gender, and sexuality. According to Oforlea, these characters navigate a discursive divide that separates limiting representations of black males in dominant discourses from a decolonized and empowered subjectivity. Specifically, the discursive divide creates an invisible boundary between how black subjects are seen, imagined, and experienced in dominant culture on the one hand, and how they understand themselves on the other. Oforlea s book offers new analyses of the character dynamics in Baldwin sGo Tell It on the Mountain, Tell Me How Long the Train s Been Gone, andIf Beale Street Could Talkand Morrison sBeloved, Song of Solomon, andTar Baby. The black male characters in these novels encounter the discursive divide, or a cultural dissonance, when they encounter dominant representations of black male identities. They use these opportunities to construct a counter-discourse about black male subjectivity. Ultimately, Oforlea argues, these characters are strategic about when and how they want to appropriate and subvert dominant ideologies. Their awareness that post-racial discourses perpetuate racial inequality serves as a gateway toward participation in collective struggles for racial justice. "