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Transgression in Postwar African American Literature Kirin Wachter
Unthinkable, Unprintable, Unspeakable: Transgression in Postwar African American Literature Kirin Wachter-Grene A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: Louis Chude-Sokei, Chair Eva Cherniavsky Sonnet Retman Program Authorized to Offer Degree: English ©Copyright 2014 Kirin Wachter-Grene University of Washington Abstract Unthinkable, Unprintable, Unspeakable: Transgression in Postwar African American Literature Kirin Wachter-Grene Chair of Supervisory Committee: Professor Louis Chude-Sokei English This dissertation argues that African American literary representations of transgression, meaning boundary exploration, reveal a complex relationship between sex, desire, pleasure, race, gender, power, and subjectivity ignored or dismissed in advantageous yet constrained liberatory readings/framings. I trace transgression to confront the critical dismissal of, or lack of engagement with African American literature that does not “fit” ideologically constrained projects, such as the liberatory. The dissertation makes a unique methodological intervention into the fields of African American literary studies, gender and sexuality studies, and cultural history by applying black, queer writer and critic Samuel R. Delany’s conceptualizing of “the unspeakable” to the work of his African American contemporaries such as Iceberg Slim, Octavia Butler, Gayl Jones, Hal Bennett, and Toni Morrison. Delany theorizes the unspeakable as forms of racial and sexual knowing excessive, or unintelligible, to frameworks such as the liberatory. The unspeakable is often represented in scenes of transgressive staged sex that articulate “dangerous” practices of relation, and, as such, is deprived of a political framework through which to be critically engaged. I argue that the unspeakable can be used as an analytic allowing critics to scrutinize how, and why, much postwar African American literature has been critically neglected or flattened. -
Winter/Spring 2008
SEGUE READING SERIES These events are made possible, in part, with public funds from The New York State @ BOWERY POETRY CLUB Council on the Arts, a state agency. Saturdays: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. 308 BOWERY, just north of Houston ****$6 admission goes to support the readers**** Winter/Spring 2008 The Segue Reading Series is made possible by the support of The Segue Foundation. For more information, please visit www.seg- uefoundation.com, bowerypoetry.com/midsection.htm, or call (212) 614-0505. Curators: February by Alan Davies, March by Charles Borkhuis, April-May. by Erica Kaufman and Tim Peterson. FEBRUARY FEBRUARY 2 GILBERT ADAIR and P. INMAN Gilbert Adair, who moved to NYC in 1999, founded and curated the “Sub-Voicive” reading series, London’s leading venue for experimental poetry. His pub- lications include “frog boks”, “keep the curtains the farce has ended”, “steakweasel”, and most recently “xiangren”, a collection of short, sometimes super-short poems. P. INMAN grew up on Long Island off the coast of “America”; publications include: Ocker; Red shift; criss cross; Vel; at. least.; amounts. to.; now/time; employment: retired Fed employee, currently works as a labor rep for AFSCME Council 26, 3 blocks away from the White House. FEBRUARY 9 MARTHA OATIS and LARRY PRICE Martha Oatis is the author of from Two Percept (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs). As well as text, drawing and sculpture are a part of her work. She is in her first year of acupuncture school and lives in Providence. Larry Price is the sometime publisher of GAZ. -
Readercon 20 Program Guide
readercon 20 KRW ©2009 program guide The conference on imaginative literature, twentieth edition readercon 20 The Boston Marriott Burlington Burlington, Massachusetts 9th–12th July 2009 Guests of Honor: Elizabeth Hand Greer Gilman Memorial Guest of Honor: Hope Mirrlees program guide Policies and Practical Information........................................................................1 Bookshop Dealers ...................................................................................................4 Readercon 20 Guest Index .....................................................................................5 Readercon 20 Program ...........................................................................................7 Thursday ...........................................................................................................7 Friday ................................................................................................................9 Saturday ..........................................................................................................20 Sunday.............................................................................................................27 Readercon 20 Committee .....................................................................................34 Readercon 21 Advertisement...............................................................................35 Program Participant Bios ....................................................................................37 Hotel Map.....................................................................Just -
ON BECOMING: AFROFUTURISM, WORLDBUILDING, and EMBODIED IMAGINATION by Clayton D. Colmon Jr. a Dissertation Submitted to the F
ON BECOMING: AFROFUTURISM, WORLDBUILDING, AND EMBODIED IMAGINATION by Clayton D. Colmon Jr. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Spring 2020 © 2020 Clayton D. Colmon Jr. All Rights Reserved ON BECOMING: AFROFUTURISM, WORLDBUILDING, AND EMBODIED IMAGINATION by Clayton D. Colmon Jr. Approved: __________________________________________________________ John R. Ernest, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of English Literature Approved: __________________________________________________________ John Pelesko, Ph.D Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ Douglas J. Doren, Ph.D. Interim Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education and Dean of the Graduate College I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ M. Jean Pfaelzer, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ A.Timothy Spaulding, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ P. Gabrielle Foreman, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. -
Abject Utopianism and Psychic Space: an Exploration of a Psychological Process Toward Utopia in the Work of Samuel R
ABJECT UTOPIANISM AND PSYCHIC SPACE: AN EXPLORATION OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESS TOWARD UTOPIA IN THE WORK OF SAMUEL R. DELANY AND JULIA KRISTEVA A Dissertation Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright by Cameron Alexander James Ellis 2014 Cultural Studies Ph.D. Graduate Program September 2014 ABSTRACT Abject Utopianism and Psychic Space: An Exploration of a Psychological Process Toward Utopia in the Work of Samuel R. Delany and Julia Kristeva Cameron Alexander James Ellis This dissertation utilizes the psychoanalytic theories of French psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva as a lens through which to read the novels of American author Samuel R. Delany. I argue that concepts proper to Kristeva’s work—namely abjection and/or the abject—can provide a way to think what it might mean to be utopian in the 21st century. Delany’s novels are received historically, which is to say his work speaks from a certain historical and cultural viewpoint that is not that of today; however, I claim that his novels are exceptional for their attempts to portray other ways of being in the world. Delany’s novels, though, contain bodies, psychologies, and sexualities that are considered abject with respect to contemporary morality. Nonetheless, this dissertation argues that such manifestations of abject lived experience provide the groundwork for the possibility of thinking utopianism differently today. Throughout, what I am working toward is a notion that I call Abject Utopianism: Rather than direct attention toward those sites that closely, yet imperfectly, approximate the ideal, one should commit one’s attention to those sights that others avoid, abscond, or turn their nose up at in disgust, for those are the sites of hope for a better world today. -
Lessoning Fiction: Modernist Crisis and the Pedagogy of Form
University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 2018 Lessoning Fiction: Modernist Crisis and the Pedagogy of Form Matthew Cheney University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Cheney, Matthew, "Lessoning Fiction: Modernist Crisis and the Pedagogy of Form" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 2387. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2387 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LESSONING FICTION: MODERNIST CRISIS AND THE PEDAGOGY OF FORM BY MATTHEW CHENEY B.A., University of New Hampshire, 2001 M.A., Dartmouth College, 2007 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English May 2018 ii This dissertation has been examined and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by: Dissertation Director, Robin Hackett, Associate Professor of English Delia Konzett, Professor of English Siobhan Senier, Professor of English Rachel Trubowitz, Professor of English A. Lavelle Porter, Assistant Professor of English New York City College of Technology, City University of New York On 29 March 2018 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire Graduate School. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF FIGURES ix NOTE ON PUNCTUATION AND EDITIONS CITED x ABSTRACT xiv 1. -
Best-African-American-Fictions-Author-Bios.Doc
Best-African-American-Fictions-Author-Bios.doc Best African American Fiction Stories Albino Crow By Chris Abani [email protected] Chris Abani's prose includes Song For Night (Akashic, 2007), The Virgin of Flames (Penguin, 2007), Becoming Abigail (Akashic, 2006), GraceLand (FSG, 2004), and Masters of the Board (Delta, 1985). His poetry collections are Hands Washing Water (Copper Canyon, 2006), Dog Woman (Red Hen, 2004), Daphne's Lot (Red Hen, 2003), and Kalakuta Republic (Saqi, 2001). He is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award & the PEN Hemingway Book Prize. Orb Weaver By Emily Raboteau Emily Raboteau is the author of a novel, The Professor's Daughter. She is at work on a book of creative nonfiction entitled Searching for Zion, about Exodus movements of the African diaspora. The Saving Work By Tiphanie Yanique Tiphanie Yanique is review editor with New York University's Calabash. A former Fulbright Scholar, she has received the Mary Grant Charles Award for fiction, the Academy of American Poets Prize, the Tufts University Africana Prize for Creativity, and fellowship residencies with Bread Loaf, Callaloo, Squaw Valley, and the Cropper Foundation for Caribbean Writers. She is the recipient of a 2008 Pushcart Prize, the 2006 Boston Review Fiction Prize, and was the Parks Fellow/Writer-in-Residence at Rice University. Her short story "The Saving Work" was chosen by Margot Livesey for the 2007 Kore Press Short Fiction Award. -
Multiplicity, Desire, and Gender in Delany’S Triton
VARIABLES OF THE HUMAN: THEORETICAL UTOPIANISMS AND HETEROTOPIAN SCIENCE FICTIONS Gerald Alva Miller A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Chapel Hill 2010 Approved by: Gregory Flaxman Linda Wagner-Martin Tyler Curtain María DeGuzmán Priscilla Wald © 2010 Gerald Alva Miller, Jr. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Gerald Alva Miller “Variables of the Human: Theoretical Utopianisms and Heterotopian Science Fictions” (Under the direction of Gregory Flaxman) My dissertation examines a diverse array of contemporary science fiction texts to explore the genre’s immanent relation to critical theory and to stage science fiction as its own form of theoretical work. In general, critics have argued that science fiction functions as a privileged genre for critical theory because its estranging settings engage the reader in a dialectical thought process by encouraging comparisons between the real world and a textual one. But, recently, science fiction novelists such as William Gibson have eschewed estranging settings and instead written novels set in a contemporary milieu. Existing theories of the genre cannot accommodate such a transformation in the genre’s basic structure. Thus, my project provides an account of the emergent relation between science fiction and critical theory that does not exclude such recent examples of the genre and that demonstrates how different sci-fi texts generate particular avenues of critical inquiry. Each of the critical enterprises that I explore in this dissertation (gender theory, psychoanalysis, postmodern theory, and memory’s relation to film) represents a unique theorization of the human, its boundaries, and our theoretical attempts to understand it. -
The Kitchen Presents the World Premiere of Bellona, Destroyer of Cities, April 1—10, 2010 Adapted and Directed by Jay Scheib After Samuel R
Press Contact: Blake Zidell & Associates tel: 718.643.9052 fax: 718.643.9502 [email protected] For Immediate Release The Kitchen presents the world premiere of Bellona, Destroyer of Cities, April 1—10, 2010 Adapted and directed by Jay Scheib after Samuel R. Delany’s epic science fiction novel Dhalgren Interdisciplinary theater work features collaborators including visual artist Carrie Mae Weems Following the critically acclaimed, Obie Award-winning first installment of Jay Scheib’s Simulated Cities/Simulated Systems performance trilogy, The Kitchen presents the world premiere of part two: Bellona, Destroyer of Cities, a new theater work based on Samuel R. Delany’s landmark science-fiction novel Dhalgren. In Bellona, Scheib combines passages from the novel with original material, movement sequences and live video to trace several intertwining plotlines driven by a group of characters with shifting identities. Set in a city doomed to revise its cataclysms again and again, Bellona, Destroyer of Cities draws on the labyrinthine world imagined by Delany to express the intricate and at times abstract delineations of race, gender and sexuality today. Performances will take place Thursdays—Saturdays, April 1—3 and 8—10 at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street). All performances begin at 8:00 P.M. Tickets are $15. Scheib’s new work for the stage, like Delany’s monumental novel, is a story about a family struggling to sustain a reality that has long ago become fiction; a young white army deserter from the South who doesn’t believe he is a racist at heart but nonetheless pulls the trigger on a black activist; gangs with strange candy-colored technology roaming the broken streets. -
"Happily Ever After": the Tragic Queer and Delany's Comic Book Fairy Tale
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research LaGuardia Community College 2015 "Happily Ever After": The Tragic Queer and Delany's Comic Book Fairy Tale Ann Matsuuchi CUNY LaGuardia Community College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/lg_pubs/16 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Matsuuichi_Matsuuchi 9/9/2015 8:44 PM Page 271 Ann Matsuuchi “Happily Ever After”: The Tragic Queer and Delany’s Comic Book Fairy Tale People can tolerate two homosexuals they see leaving together, but if the next day they’re smiling, holding hands and tenderly embracing one another, then they can’t be forgiven. It is not the departure for pleasure that is intolerable, it is waking up happy. —Michel Foucault, qtd. in Leo Bersani, Homos (1995) n a 2014 panel discussion with Samuel R. Delany, bell hooks praised his autobio- Igraphical graphic novel Bread & Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York as being a work that exemplifies a subversive refashioning of sexual imagery: The amazing thing about Bread & Wine is that it is so tender. And I think that we are still trying to figure out how can we create sexual images, images of the penis, that are loving and tender and not about domination. We praise him because of the visions that he has created in his work. (bell hooks in “Open Dialogue”) Together with artist Mia Wolff, and with an authorial contribution from his partner Dennis, Delany depicts a queer love story that resists clichéd homonormative recasting of existing familial templates but one that calls into question how expecta- tions of queer happiness are formulated, given that they are bounded by a persistent set of social norms (race, class, education, and income) and their intersections.