Colson Whitehead

The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature

Kimberly Fain

From his first novel, The Intuitionist, in 1999, Colson Whitehead has produced fiction that brilliantly blurs genre and cultural lines to demonstrate the universal angst and integral bonds shared by all Americans. By neglecting to mention a character’s racial heritage, Whitehead challenges the cultural assumptions of his readers. His African American protagonists are well educated and upwardly mobile and thus lack some of the social angst that is imposed by racial stratification. Despite the critical acclaim and literary awards Whitehead has received, there have been few in-depth examinations of his work.

In Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature, Kimberly Fain explores the work of this literary trailblazer, discussing how his novels reconstruct the American identity to be inclusive rather than exclusive and thus broaden the scope of who is considered an American. Whitehead attempts this feat by including African Americans among the class of people who may achieve the American Dream, assuming they are educated and economically mobile. While the conflicts faced by his characters are symptoms of the universal human condition, they assimilate at the expense of cultural alienation and emotional emptiness.

In addition to The Intuitionist, Fain also examines John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, The Colossus of New York, Sag Harbor, and Zone One, demonstrating how they bend genre tropes and approach literary motifs from a postracial perspective. Comparing the author to his African American and American literary forebears, as well as examining his literary ambivalence between post-blackness and postracialism, Colson Whitehead offers readers a unique insight to one of the most important authors of the twenty-first century. As such, this book will be of interest to scholars of African American literature, American literature, African American studies, American studies, multicultural studies, gender studies, and literary theory.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 192 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4422-5013-0 • Hardback • May 2015 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4422-5014-7 • eBook • May 2015 • $105.50 • (£82.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / African American, Literary Criticism / Popular Literature, Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century, Literary Criticism / Modern / 21st Century, Literary Criticism / Critical Theory / Postmodernism

Colson Whitehead

The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature

Hardback

eBook

Summary

From his first novel, The Intuitionist, in 1999, Colson Whitehead has produced fiction that brilliantly blurs genre and cultural lines to demonstrate the universal angst and integral bonds shared by all Americans. By neglecting to mention a character’s racial heritage, Whitehead challenges the cultural assumptions of his readers. His African American protagonists are well educated and upwardly mobile and thus lack some of the social angst that is imposed by racial stratification. Despite the critical acclaim and literary awards Whitehead has received, there have been few in-depth examinations of his work.

In Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature, Kimberly Fain explores the work of this literary trailblazer, discussing how his novels reconstruct the American identity to be inclusive rather than exclusive and thus broaden the scope of who is considered an American. Whitehead attempts this feat by including African Americans among the class of people who may achieve the American Dream, assuming they are educated and economically mobile. While the conflicts faced by his characters are symptoms of the universal human condition, they assimilate at the expense of cultural alienation and emotional emptiness.

In addition to The Intuitionist, Fain also examines John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, The Colossus of New York, Sag Harbor, and Zone One, demonstrating how they bend genre tropes and approach literary motifs from a postracial perspective. Comparing the author to his African American and American literary forebears, as well as examining his literary ambivalence between post-blackness and postracialism, Colson Whitehead offers readers a unique insight to one of the most important authors of the twenty-first century. As such, this book will be of interest to scholars of African American literature, American literature, African American studies, American studies, multicultural studies, gender studies, and literary theory.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 192 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4422-5013-0 • Hardback • May 2015 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4422-5014-7 • eBook • May 2015 • $105.50 • (£82.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / African American, Literary Criticism / Popular Literature, Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century, Literary Criticism / Modern / 21st Century, Literary Criticism / Critical Theory / Postmodernism

Author

Kimberly Fain, JD, MA, is an adjunct professor at Texas Southern University, Houston Community College, and an associate editor of World Literary Review.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I: The Intuitionist
Chapter 1 Verticality: Allegorical Symbols of Racial and National Uplift
Chapter 2 Lila Mae the Invisible Woman of The Intuitionist
Chapter 3 Piercing the Veil: Passing, Colorblindness, and Postracialism
Chapter 4 The American Spirit: John Henry’s Legendary and Epic Stature Amongst Folk Heroes Such as Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan
Chapter 5 Heroism and Masculinity in the Industrial Age and the Digital Age
Chapter 6 Commercial Enslavement and Liberation in the Industrial Age versus the Digital Age
Chapter 7 Apex: The Metaphorical Bandage That Masks but Never Heals

Part II: The Colossus of New York
Chapter 8 New York: A Postracial Dream Realized or an American Dream Deferred Chapter 9The Colossus of New York: A Tribute to Gothic Urban Spaces
Chapter 10 Subways, Rush Hour, and Downtown: New Yorkers Lead Quiet Lives of
Desperation

Part III: Sag Harbor & Zone One
Chapter 11 Social and Philosophical Divide: The Intersection of Class and Race for an Adolescent and Adult Colson Whitehead
Chapter 12 Wright and Whitehead: Black Hunger in the South and Black Faces in the Hamptons
Chapter 13 Colson Whitehead’s Zone One: Post-apocalyptic Zombies Takeover Manhattan in the Age of Nostalgia, Despair and Consumption

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Colson Whitehead

The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature

Kimberly Fain

Colson Whitehead

The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature

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