Not Profound, but Purposeful: On Ishmael Reed‘s Voluntary Restriction by Race in Post-Black America

• Authors: ŠALAMOUN Jiří
• Year of publication: 2016
• Type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
• MU Faculty or unit: Faculty of Education
• Description: Ever since the ascent of post-Black theory in the 1990s, African American artists such as Trey Ellis and Kara Walker have refused to be restricted by race as the main subject of their art. The pinnacle of such aesthetics can be seen in Kenneth Warren’s seminal monograph What Was African American Literature (2011) which suggests that African American literature ceased to exist along with the overt forms of racism. These approaches are united with the lack of perceived value in race as subject of African American art in the post- Black era. However, while there are valid grounds for such views, this talk examines the contrary perspective on the matter: the literature of Ishmael Reed who has never (voluntarily) ceased to be restricted by race. The talk juxtaposes Warren’s claim that revealing racism in contemporary America does not make a profound argument with examples of precisely such literary practice taken from Reed’s 2011 novel Juice! which reveals covert forms of racism in the U.S. media. The talk concludes by claiming that in post-Black America of Michael Brown and Eric Garner there is value even in such type of African American literature which is still restricted by race and hence might not be profound but it is purposeful.