The African American Male, Writing, and Difference

Download or read book The African American Male, Writing, and Difference written by W. Lawrence Hogue and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-ranging analysis, W. Lawrence Hogue argues that African American life and history is more diverse than even African American critics generally acknowledge. Focusing on literary representations of African American males in particular, Hogue examines works by James Weldon Johnson, William Melvin Kelley, Charles Wright, Nathan Heard, Clarence Major, James Earl Hardy, and Don Belton to see how they portray middle-class, Christian, subaltern, voodoo, urban, jazz/blues, postmodern, and gay African American cultures. Hogue shows that this polycentric perspective can move beyond a "racial uplift" approach to African American literature and history and help paint a clearer picture of the rich diversity of African American life and culture.