Race Theory

1
Race Theory

• Not a single unified theoretical school
• Post-1965 movement in literary theory
• Influence of Marxism, Structuralist, and
  post-Structuralist thought
• Concern with representing/representation of Race
  in literature and culture
• Interest in theorizing language and linguistics
• Political and literary movement

2
Houston A. Baker, Jr. (b. 1943)

• Central African-American critic
• Interested in vernacular
• Tensionmainstreaming African-American
  tradition/highlighting distinctions
• Claims White standards not suitable for Black
  writers

3
Houston A. Baker, Jr. (b. 1943)

• Uses high theory to study Black writers
• Claims language speaks the subject
• White achieved via determinate negation
• African-American culture as complex matrix
• Wants to preserve difference within Black culture
• Great significance of vernacular

4
Houston A. Baker, Jr. (b. 1943)

• Dialects of the unheard
• Theorizes the Blues as powerful popular Black
  art
• Black community still shackled by economics of
  slavery
• Experience still must be translated into art
• Baker still believes in humanist notion of
  individual

5
From Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American
Literature A Vernacular Theory (1984)

• 2227 Language speaking the subject
• 2228 Material conditions of slavery and blues
• 2229 Intertextual ideologieswants to maintain
  materiality
• 2230 African-American culture as complex matrix
• Figured by Blues

6
From Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American
Literature (1984)

• 2231 Blues
• Potential of Blues to erupt creating play of
  meaning
• Get anonymous voice from Black communal
• 2232 Blues as synthesis always becoming
• Still material
• 2233 Blues as meditational site where
  antinomies are resolved
• Blues always at the crossing

7
From Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American
Literature (1984)

• 2234 Blues singers codify and organize
  diversity of experiences
• 2235 Blues always wandering
• Blues avoid simple dualities

8
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (b. 1950)

• Important African-American critic and spokesman
• Emphasizes an African-American tradition
• Uses and revises mainstream literary theory
• Mixes deconstruction and African-American
  tradition

9
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (b. 1950)

• Theorizes signifying/signification
• Helps produce Blackness textually
• Gates wants to uphold integral Black aesthetic
• Advocates cultural tolerance

10
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (b. 1950)

• Upholds black aesthetic
• Wants to preserve Black aesthetic in literary
  institution
• Positions himself between separatist and
  assimilationist politics
• Edited Norton Anthology of African-American
  Literature

11
Talking Black Critical Signs of the Times
(1988)

• 2426 Crummell believed in mastering masters
  tongue
• 2427 Learning masters critical tools as
  empowerment for African Americans
• 2428 Black criticism has been focused on
  non-aesthetic uses
• Theory seen as decadent (White) activity

12
Talking Black Critical Signs of the Times
(1988)

• 2429 Has tried to transform contemporary theory
  for Black use
• Black tradition contingent on creation of
  Blackness
• Race as textnot essence
• Wants to de-familiarize texts of Black tradition

13
Talking Black Critical Signs of the Times
(1988)

• 2430 Welcomes various critical tools
• Black critics cant be afraid of theory
• Theory must be political
• 2431 Black literature dwells in difference
• Must read differences
• Signifying
• Must still draw on Black vernacular
• 2432 Must not succumb to lure of White power