Unstable Subjects: Race and Meaning in Contemporary (African) American Literature

What are the stakes involved in defining (African) American literature through a racialized authorial framework? Should we adhere to this prescribed and contentious categorization when considering writers who only incidentally identify as “black,” and whose works challenge any critical or aesthetic alignment based upon racial affiliation? More broadly, this course seeks to question the lingering persistence of race as an ontological marker within the literary arts. Writers include but are not limited to Fran Ross, Darryl Pinckney, Andrea Lee, David Henry Hwang, Maurice Manning, and Colson Whitehead.