Challenging the standard portrayals of Black men in African American literature

From Frederick Douglass to the present, the preoccupation of black writers with manhood and masculinity is a constant. Black Manhood in James Baldwin, Ernest J. Gaines, and August Wilson explores how in their own work three major African American writers contest classic portrayals of black men in earlier literature, from slave narratives through the great novels of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.

Keith Clark examines short stories, novels, and plays by Baldwin, Gaines, and Wilson, arguing that since the 1950s the three have interrupted and radically dismantled the constricting literary depictions of black men who equate selfhood with victimization, isolation, and patriarchy. Instead, they have reimagined black men whose identity is grounded in community, camaraderie, and intimacy.

Delivering original and startling insights, this book will appeal to scholars and students of African American literature, gender studies, and narratology.

| Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments 1. Countering the Counterdiscourse: Subject Formation and the Aesthetics of Black Masculinist Protest Discourse since 1940 2. The Perilous Journey to a Brother's Country: James Baldwin and the Rigors of Community 3. Reimagining Richard: Ernest J. Gaines and the Neo-Masculinist Literary Imagination 4. Race, Ritual, Reconnection, Reclamation: August Wilson and the Refiguration of the Male Dramatic Subject Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index Back cover |"A significant study for helping us hear more clearly the 'voices of countless native and invisible sons'."—American Literature
|Keith Clark is a professor of English and African American Studies at George Mason University. His books include Navigating the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines: A Roadmap for Readers and The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry, winner of the College Language Association Creative Scholarship Award. He is the editor of Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama.