Major Trends in Contemporary African American Literature
A major reason that the Black Arts Movement came to an end was due to the movement of African-American literature into the mainstream as a result of the successes of such writers as Maya Angelou and James Baldwin not only with African Americans, but with the dominate white culture in America. For instance, Angelou’s I Know why the Caged Bird Sings stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list for over two years following its publication, it won the National Book Award, and is still taught in schools across the country.
First, read Renaissance in the 1970s and African American Literature Since 1975 Overview.
The following areas distinguish African-American literature written in the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st century from that written earlier:
an increased study of the literature of the Diaspora; more writers from, for example, the Caribbean were being read
a surge in college and university courses in African-American studies, including literature, politics, culture, and history
the publication of literature written by African-American gay and lesbian writers
critical theories focused specifically on African-American literature
widespread acceptance of African-American authors and writing
mainstreaming of African-American authors
rise of hip hop, spoken word, magical realism, and the balkanization of literature
Generation X and Generation Y changes in perspective
Contemporary African-American literature is still concerned with social justice include feminism; politics, social, and cultural change and influences; racism; and postmodernism. Contemporary events and issues influencing African-American writing reflect the culture: the Vietnam War, the American presidency, police brutality, talk shows, online retail, social media, and film, to name some. Music, particularly jazz, hip-hop, and the blues, also are reflected in the literature.
Diaspora
The word diaspora is from Greek meaning “to scatter; to dissipate.” In contemporary usage, it’s a word that denotes people leaving their homeland to go to another place, such as Africans being transported to Europe and the Americas as slaves. During the Atlantic slave trade, between 9 million and 12 million Africans survived the trip from their homeland to slavery in Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean (with an estimated 1-2 million perishing during the journey).
A key reason to focus on the African diaspora is that even a few people changing locations will influence the culture of both societies–the departed and the receiver. Imagine, then, the impact of millions of people adopting, adapting, learning, and even rejecting the new culture.
A prime example of an African diaspora story is Alex Haley’s Roots. While there are numerous best-selling, notable, and significant African-American works from the 1970s, none likely had greater impact or importance than Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976). The book was quickly followed by a mini-series (1977), which was very popular across racial lines. This series opened a dialogue in the United States, and perhaps for one of the first times brought the historical significance, brutality, and impact of how Africans were transported to America, as well as treatment of slaves and freemen alike in America across an expanse of time.
Other aspects of diaspora literature include those authors who have immigrated to America and now write as Americans, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jamaica Kincaid, Fred d’Aguiar, and Edwidge Danticat among many others.
African-American Studies and Literary Criticism
In the 1960s, the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University spearheaded the inclusion of not only classes, but entire departments dedicated to the study of African-American topics, history, issues, religion, culture, and literature, among other areas.
Growing out of African-American studies, a specific form of literary criticism evolved. The theory behind African-American literary criticism includes negotiating the historical oppression and marginalization of African Americans in the form of culture, politics, literature, publication, society, and history, among other topics. The criticism is particularly focused on the interaction of dominant cultures and people to the “others”–African Americans, Native Americans, women, handicapped, gay and lesbian, and other “others.”
Additionally, the criticism seeks out the influences of Africa on the literature, such as residual language, cultural practices, historical and cultural attitudes and behaviors, and reactions to dominant cultures. Also, the transitions from Africa to America, and African to American, and then to African American, are of particular interest to African-American literary criticism.
African-American literary criticism is closely related to Post-Colonial literary criticism with particular emphasis on how African Americans can be considered a post-colonial people within yet another post-colonial culture. That is to say that America itself is post-colonial, having been colonized by mainly European cultures. Within that culture, Americans fought to be separate from the colonizers (such as America’s fight for independence from England). Then, within that post-colonial society, African-American civilization was also a dominated and oppressed culture.
Furthermore, African-American Literary Criticism is clearly interested in exploring race and racism.
African-American Queer Representation
The taboo against an African-American writing about his or her homosexuality seems to have been weakened beginning in the late 1970s. This may have been a result of the confidence black American writers derived from the Black Arts Movement. Addressing gay and lesbian issues, as well as characters, in literature helped to reduce the stigma of being gay or lesbian. Prominent queer black writers include Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, and Langston Hughes. The literature also forged same-sex relationships through narrative. For example, to some readers, Sula and Nel, characters in Toni Morrison’s novel Sula, are lesbians. Also, Shug and Celie in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple appear to be lesbian. In James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain, the character John fantasizes about older boys in school, while also being strongly interested in females, such as Elisha.
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