Negotiating Difference

Race, Gender, and the Politics of Positionality

Author: Michael Awkward
ISBN: 9780226033013

Encamped within the limits of experience and "authenticity," critics today often stake out their positions according to race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, and vigilantly guard the boundaries against any incursions into their privileged territory. In this book, Michael Awkward raids the borders of contemporary criticism to show how debilitating such "protectionist" stances can be and how much might be gained by crossing our cultural boundaries. From Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It to Michael Jackson's physical transmutations, from Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon to August Wilson's Fences, from male scholars' investments in feminism to white scholars' in black texts—Awkward explores cultural moments that challenge the exclusive critical authority of race and gender. In each instance he confronts the question: What do artists, scholars, and others concerned with representations of Afro-American life make of the view that gender, race, and sexuality circumscribe their own and oth

Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publish Date: 1995-03

Subjects: Literary Criticism / General, Literary Criticism / American / General, Social Science / General

This book is available in the following Community Centers: LGBT Recource Center (Location: )