Publishing Blackness

Textual Constructions of Race Since 1850

Subjects: American Studies, African American Studies, Literary Studies
Hardcover : 9780472118632, 248 pages, 2 figures, 1 halftone, 6 x 9, February 2013
Open Access : 9780472900992, 248 pages, 2 figures, 1 halftone, 6 x 9, May 2018

This open access version made available with the support of libraries participating in Knowledge Unlatched.
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The first of its kind, this volume sets in dialogue African Americanist and textual scholarship, exploring a wide range of African American textual history and work

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Description

From the white editorial authentication of slave narratives, to the cultural hybridity of the Harlem Renaissance, to the overtly independent publications of the Black Arts Movement, to the commercial power of Oprah's Book Club, African American textuality has been uniquely shaped by the contests for cultural power inherent in literary production and distribution. Always haunted by the commodification of blackness, African American literary production interfaces with the processes of publication and distribution in particularly charged ways. An energetic exploration of the struggles and complexities of African American print culture, this collection ranges across the history of African American literature, and the authors have much to contribute on such issues as editorial and archival preservation, canonization, and the "packaging" and repackaging of black-authored texts. Publishing Blackness aims to project African Americanist scholarship into the discourse of textual scholarship, provoking further work in a vital area of literary study.

George B. Hutchinson is Newton C. Farr Professor of American Culture at Cornell University.

John K. Young is Professor of English at Marshall University.

“There is a pressing need for a collection of essays that can initiate conversation between textual scholars and scholars of African American literature.  Publishing Blackness promises to bring together these fields in new and exciting ways.”

—Leon Jackson, University of South Carolina

Publishing Blackness is a fascinating, thought-provoking, and long overdue collection.”

—Matt Cohen, University of Texas at Austin

"There is a pressing need for a collection of essays that can initiate conversation between textual scholars and scholars of African American literature. Publishing Blackness promises to bring together these fields in new and exciting ways."
—Leon Jackson, University of South Carolina

- Leon Jackson, University of South Carolina

"Publishing Blackness is a fascinating, thought-provoking, and long overdue collection."
—Matt Cohen, University of Texas at Austin

- Matt Cohen, University of Texas at Austin

"The book makes a significant contribution to the textual scholarship on race... Recommended."
--Choice

- P. Naick