Melissa Daniels-Rauterkus - Afro-Realisms and the Romances of Race: Rethinking Blackness in the African American Novel

Afro-Realisms and the Romances of Race

Afro-Realisms and the Romances of Race

Rethinking Blackness in the African American Novel

MELISSA DANIELS-RAUTERKUS

Louisiana State University Press
Baton Rouge

Published with the assistance of a subsidy from the University of Southern California.

Published by Louisiana State University Press

Copyright 2020 by Louisiana State University Press

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

First printing

Designer: Michelle A. Neustrom

Typeface: Minion Pro

Printer and binder: Sheridan Books, Inc.

Part of chapter 3 first appeared as Racial Fictions and the Cultural Work of Genre in Charles W. Chesnutts The House behind the Cedars, American Literary Realism 48.2 (2016): 12846. Copyright 2016 the University of Illinois Press.

An earlier version of chapter 4 first appeared as The Limits of Literary Realism: Of One Blood s Post-Racial Fantasy by Pauline Hopkins, Callaloo 36.1 (2013): 15877. Copyright 2013 The Johns Hopkins University Press. Reprinted with permission by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Daniels-Rauterkus, Melissa, author.

Title: Afro-realisms and the romances of race : rethinking blackness in the African American novel / Melissa Daniels-Rauterkus.

Description: Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019040499 (print) | LCCN 2019040500 (ebook) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7262-9 (cloth) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7340-4 (pdf) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7341-1 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: American fictionAfrican American authorsHistory and criticism. | American fictionWhite authorsHistory and criticism. | American fiction19th centuryHistory and criticism. | American fiction20th centuryHistory and criticism. | African Americans in literature. | Race relations in literature.

Classification: LCC PS153.N5 D25 2020 (print) | LCC PS153.N5 (ebook) | DDC 813.009/352996073dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040499

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040500

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

For my daughter, Angelika,
with hopes that you exceed your wildest dreams

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing this book has been my most incredible journey yet. It has taken me to many unfamiliar and unexpected places, stretched my mind and my emotions, and changed me in ways that elude expression. So I will do my best to convey here just how grateful I am to everyone who supported me along the way.

I must begin by thanking the Department of English at Northwestern University, where I not only deepened my knowledge of American and African American literature, but also first developed my interests in race and realism. Many people at Northwestern helped me shape the ideas that comprise this book. Julia Stern was by far my most crucial source of inspiration. She taught me much about nineteenth-century literary history and provided me with a template for the kind of scholar I wanted to be. A brilliant writer and teacher, Julia remains an unparalleled example of intellectual and pedagogical excellence. I also have to thank Ivy Wilson and Carl Smith, who were as generous as they were rigorous, reading my work with great care and offering advice at every step of the way. For introducing me to African American literary criticism, critical theory, cultural studies, and critical race theory, I thank Jennifer DeVere Brody, Alex Weheliye, and Sharon P. Holland. I also have to thank Darlene Clark Hine for welcoming me into her History of Black Women in the Diaspora course and giving me a historical context for assessing the aesthetic and political work of black women writers at the turn of the twentieth century. For teaching me about the joys and challenges of navigating academia while black, I thank Dwight A. McBride, John Keene, Kevin Bell, and E. Patrick Johnson.

For making life outside of the classroom both fun and intellectually stimulating, I give a heartfelt thanks to my graduate school friends. Greg Laski was, and remains, my favorite collaborator and one of my best readers. Wanalee Romero and Carissa Harris provided laughter and levity during our weekly wine and cheese soirees. Janaka Bowman Lewis, Tasha Hawthorne, and Crystal Sanders gave me sisterhood and support beyond my cohort and the department. Rickey Fayne read and commented on early versions of the manuscript and was always willing to help me locate an obscure source. Sonia Arora encouraged me to think about my academic goals in relationship to larger conversations about access and equityboth in the private K-12 sector and in higher educationwhich ultimately helped me to become a better scholar and teacher.

I am also indebted to the numerous conferences, colloquia, and professional meetings I attended over the years, where I presented various iterations of the work that has gone into this book. In this regard, I am grateful to the organizers and participants of the Literary Tourge Conference and meetings of the Modern Language Association, the American Studies Association, C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, the Midwest Modern Language Association, and the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College. More specifically, I am grateful to the wonderful scholars with whom I have had the pleasure of being on a panel, such as Donald E. Pease, Robert T. Tally Jr., James E. Dobson, Daylanne K. English, Mollie Godfrey, Deborah Whaley, and Jonathan W. Gray. I am equally grateful to the scholars who kindly agreed to serve on panels that I co-organized, including Kenneth W. Warren, Russ Castronovo, Sharon P. Holland, Soyica Diggs Colbert, John Ernest, M. Giulia Fabi, Eric Gardner, Barbara McCaskill, Caroline Gebhard, Andre N. Williams, Shirley Moody-Turner, and Adam Bradley.

This book has also greatly benefited from the input and support of colleagues and friends at several different institutions. I extend my heartiest thanks and appreciation to the University of Southern California. I would not have been able to write this book without the generous financial assistance, course releases, and pre-tenure sabbatical that the university gave me at the time of my appointment. I owe much gratitude to my mentor, colleague, and friend John Carlos Rowe, who read multiple versions of the manuscript and offered crucial advice at critical junctures. In many ways, John deserves much of the credit for making this book what it has become. I also want to thank Dean Peter Mancall, who generously provided a grant from the USC Dornsife Deans Office. For easing my transition into the department, I wish to thank David St. John, Dana Johnson, Rebecca Lemon, Devin Griffiths, and Elda Mara Romn. I owe a very special thank-you to Devin and Elda Mara, who read and commented on parts of the manuscript. Similarly, I feel very lucky to have had Danzy Senna read both the introduction and the epilogue, and I credit her for pushing me to be brave and provocative in my thinking about black cultural politics. For their collegiality and assistance in everyday matters, I thank Emily Anderson, Aimee Bender, Joseph Boone, Leo Braudy, Ashley Cohen, Percival Everett, Kate Flint, Chris Freeman, Alice Gambrell, Larry Green, Tim Gustafson, William Handley, Mark Irwin, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Heather James, Anna Journey, Tony Kemp, Tania Modleski, Carol Muske-Dukes, Maggie Nelson, Viet Thanh Nguyen, David Rollo, David Romn, Margaret Russert, Hilary Schor, Karen Tongson, and David Treuer. For providing administrative assistance and support, I thank Nellie Ayala-Reyes, Flora Ruiz, Jose Perez Guerrero, Lauren Terazawa, Javier Ramirez Franco, and Laura Hough.