Autobiography and Black Identity Politics: Racialization in Twentieth-Century America

Hardback

Main Details

Title Autobiography and Black Identity Politics: Racialization in Twentieth-Century America
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Kenneth Mostern
SeriesCultural Margins
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:294
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140
Category/GenreLiterary theory
Literary studies - from c 1900 -
Literary studies - fiction, novelists and prose writers
ISBN/Barcode 9780521641142
ClassificationsDewey:810.9896073
Audience
Professional & Vocational

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 17 June 1999
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Why has autobiography been central to African American political speech throughout the twentieth century? What is it about the racialization process that persistently places African Americans in the position of speaking from personal experience? In Autobiography and Black Identity Politics: Racialization in Twentieth-Century America, Kenneth Mostern illustrates the relationship between narrative and racial categories such as 'colored', 'Negro', 'black' or 'African American' in the work of writers such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Paul Robeson, Angela Davis and bell hooks. Mostern shows how these autobiographical narratives attempt to construct and transform the political meanings of blackness. The relationship between a black masculine identity that emerged during the 1960s, and the counter-movement of black feminism since the 1970s, is also discussed. This wide-ranging study will interest all those working in African American studies, cultural studies and literary theory.

Reviews

"Mostern provides intriguing readings of...the autobiographies he presents." American Literature