Black Configurations : The Ethos of “Tradition” from Sterling Brown to Toni Morrison, Volume I

Black Configurations : The Ethos of “Tradition” from Sterling Brown to Toni Morrison, Volume I

(Author) Kimberly W. Benston
Format: Hardcover
80.00 Price: £72.00 (10% off)

Black Configurations is the first volume of a three-volume study that offers a fresh reading of African-American literary history by locating within the literature itself the terms for a revisionary account of black writing, terms pursued along three distinct but interlocking pathways: by charting figurations of tradition among six of the most innovative practitioners of black literary expression from Sterling Brown to Toni Morrison (Volume 1); by following the haunting pathways of spectral dialogues between slavery and African-American modernism (Volume 2); and by interrogating interlocking topoi of critique and assertion (naming; facing; voicing) across the history of African-American literary expression. The critical trilogy thereby presents a narrative of African-American literature as a continual, dialectical process, blending confrontation with traumatic origins and the quest for expressive transformation. This project arises from the question: how does one construe and narrate the story of a tradition for which the conventional structure of literary history is itself politically and thematically charged issue? Across the landscapes cultivated by each of its three volumes, the study confronts this question by developing a mode of critical history adequate to a literature that exerts transformative pressure on the very experience that engenders it, attending both to the material circumstances of its linguistic achievement and the expressive activity by which the black subject emerges.

Information
Publisher:
Anthem Press
Format:
Hardcover
Number of pages:
None
ISBN:
9781785278679
Publish year:
2025
Publish date:
Dec. 31, 2025

Kimberly W. Benston

Kimberly W. Benston is best known for his novel "Anatomy of a Rose," a lyrical exploration of love and loss. His poetic and introspective writing style has earned him recognition as a master of emotional storytelling. Benston's contributions to literature have enriched the literary landscape with his poignant and heartfelt narratives.

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