A History of the African American Novel

Description

A History of the African American Novel offers an in-depth overview of the development of the novel and its major genres. In the first part of this book, Valerie Babb examines the evolution of the novel from the 1850s to the present, showing how the concept of black identity has transformed along with the art form. The second part of this History explores the prominent genres of African American novels, such as neoslave narratives, detective fiction, and speculative fiction, and considers how each one reflects changing understandings of blackness. This book builds on other literary histories by including early black print culture, African American graphic novels, pulp fiction, and the history of adaptation of black novels to film. By placing novels in conversation with other documents - early black newspapers and magazines, film, and authorial correspondence - A History of the African American Novel brings many voices to the table to broaden interpretations of the novel's development.

Valerie Babb is Franklin Professor of English and Director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia. She has been a professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC and a faculty member of the Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College, Vermont. Among her publications are Whiteness Visible: The Meaning of Whiteness in American Literature and Culture (1998), Black Georgetown Remembered (1991), a book and a video described as 'the history behind the Oprah Book Club selection River, Cross My Heart (1999),' and Ernest Gaines (1991). She edited The Langston Hughes Review from 2000-2010. She has been a Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York and is the recipient of a W. M. Keck Foundation Fellowship in American Studies. She has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad, and has presented a Distinguished W. E. B. Du Bois Lecture at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.

'This compendious work is a major achievement: Valerie Babb has carefully excavated a huge tradition, spanning more than 150 years and many kinds of writing. She has made a compelling argument for an African American tradition, while also acknowledging that some black writers wished to place themselves outside or at odds with that tradition. With its meticulous and wide survey, the book opens up a wealth of forgotten and neglected texts in every chapter.' Tim Armstrong, Royal Holloway, University of London 'A much-needed comprehensive history of the African American novelistic imagination, this book tracks the chronological development of the black novel in the US and provides an in-depth look at various genres ... Particularly valuable are the sections on speculative fiction and African American pulp, in which Babb (Univ. of Georgia) discusses writers who do not often receive critical academic attention, or at least not in a scholarly tome alongside established writers ... Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.' D. J. Rosenthal, Choice 'A History of the African American Novel is a highly readable and valuable point of reference. Each periodized chapter, alongside Babb's detailed notes and a lengthy Appendix of African American writers, gives a strong sense of canonical and less familiar black American novels in their literary, cultural, and historical contexts. The genre-based chapters trace the development of traditional and popular forms such as detective, speculative, pulp, graphic, and diasporic novels, as well as filmic adaptations.' Bella Adams, Modern Language Review