A God of Justice?": The Problem of Evil in Twentieth-Century Black Literature - Softcover

Qiana J. Whitted

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813927978 ISBN 13: 9780813927978

Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 2009

Synopsis

Focusing on the representations of spiritual crisis in twentieth-century African American fiction and autobiography, Qiana J. Whitted asks how some of the most distinguished writers of this tradition wrestle with the inexplicable nature of God and the experience of unmerited natural and moral sufferings such as racial oppression. Although this spiritual and existential dilemma of "the problem of evil" is not unique to African Americans, writers such as Countée Cullen, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ernest Gaines, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison offer paradigmatic examples of it in black life and culture after World War I. Whitted argues that these spiritual struggles so often articulated through the cry for divine justice are central to an understanding of modern black literary engagements with religion. Chapters explore the discourse of religious doubt and questioning through the crucified black Christ and the mourner’s bench tropes, womanist spiritual infidelity, and the humanist improvisations of blues narratives.

For too long, the author contends, literary critics have explained this suffering through platitudes of endurance and communal redemption, valorizing problematic notions of unquestioned faith and self-sacrifice. By questioning what is at stake for African Americans who call for divine justice, Whitted challenges the assumptions about African American religiosity by revealing an alternative tradition of narrative dissent and philosophical engagement. In doing so, she broadens the horizons of critical inquiry in black literary and cultural studies.

About this title

About the Author:

Qiana J. Whitted is Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina.

Review:

What most distinguishes 'A God of Justice?' is that it firmly ushers the study of religion in African American literature into the modern age by focusing on what most frames religious reflection in the twentieth century: the renewed focus on evil and suffering in a ghastly century and the religious doubt it has helped engender. This is the first study that explores modern black literature and religion, and the author handles crucial texts and authors with creativity, insight, and aplomb.

(Clarence Hardy, Dartmouth University, author of James Baldwin’s God: Sex, Hope, and Crisis in Black Holiness Culture)

Brilliantly conceived. 'A God of Justice?' is original and will become a model in the field of African American literary studies and beyond.

(Katherine Clay Bassard, Virginia Commonwealth University, author of Spiritual Interrogations: Culture, Gender, and Community in Early African American Women’s Writing)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0813927978
• ISBN 13: 9780813927978
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240