 | Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature Subjects: American literature -- African American authors -- History and criticism; African Americans -- Intellectual life; African Americans in literature; African American aesthetics; Race in literature; Realism in literature; For a work to be considered African American literature, does it need to focus on African American characters? Or is it enough for the author to be identified as African American? Jarrett traces the shifting definitions of African American literature and the authors who wrote beyond those boundaries at the cost of critical dismissal or obscurity. Gene Andrew Jarrett teaches English at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the editor of African American Literature Beyond Race: An Alternative Reader and a coeditor of The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar. His articles have appeared in PMLA, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Novel: A Forum on Fiction, and Callaloo. |
