Authentic Blackness : The Folk in the New Negro Renaissance

J Martin Favor

ISBN 10: 0822323451 / ISBN 13: 9780822323457

Published by Duke University Press Jul 1999, 1999

About this Item

Neuware - What constitutes "blackness" in American culture And who gets to define whether or not someone is truly African American Is a struggling hip-hop artist more "authentic" than a conservative Supreme Court justice In Authentic Blackness J. Martin Favor looks to the New Negro Movement-also known as the Harlem Renaissance-to explore early challenges to the idea that race is a static category.Authentic Blackness looks at the place of the "folk"-those African Americans "furthest down," in the words of Alain Locke-and how the representation of the folk and the black middle class both spurred the New Negro Movement and became one of its most serious points of contention. Drawing on vernacular theories of African American literature from such figures as Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Houston Baker as well as theorists Judith Butler and Stuart Hall, Favor looks closely at the work of four Harlem Renaissance fiction writers: James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, George Schuyler, and Jean Toomer. Arguing that each of these writers had, at best, an ambiguous relationship to African American folk culture, Favor demonstrates how they each sought to redress the notion of a fixed black identity. Authentic Blackness illustrates how "race" has functioned as a type of performative discourse, a subjectivity that simultaneously builds and conceals its connections with such factors as class, gender, sexuality, and geography.

Seller Inventory # 9780822323457

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Authentic Blackness : The Folk in the New Negro Renaissance
• Publisher: Duke University Press Jul 1999
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822323451
• ISBN 13: 9780822323457
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 153H x 14D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 153 millimeters height by 14 millimeters depth
• Weight: 336 grams

About this title

Synopsis

What constitutes “blackness” in American culture? And who gets to define whether or not someone is truly African American? Is a struggling hip-hop artist more “authentic” than a conservative Supreme Court justice? In Authentic Blackness J. Martin Favor looks to the New Negro Movement—also known as the Harlem Renaissance—to explore early challenges to the idea that race is a static category.
Authentic Blackness looks at the place of the “folk”—those African Americans “furthest down,” in the words of Alain Locke—and how the representation of the folk and the black middle class both spurred the New Negro Movement and became one of its most serious points of contention. Drawing on vernacular theories of African American literature from such figures as Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Houston Baker as well as theorists Judith Butler and Stuart Hall, Favor looks closely at the work of four Harlem Renaissance fiction writers: James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, George Schuyler, and Jean Toomer. Arguing that each of these writers had, at best, an ambiguous relationship to African American folk culture, Favor demonstrates how they each sought to redress the notion of a fixed black identity. Authentic Blackness illustrates how “race” has functioned as a type of performative discourse, a subjectivity that simultaneously builds and conceals its connections with such factors as class, gender, sexuality, and geography.

About the Author

J. Martin Favor is Assistant Professor of English at Dartmouth College.