Calls and Responses

Winner of the 2008 Jules and Frances Landry Award, this comprehensive, groundbreaking study explores how American novelists since World War I have imagined the institution of slavery and the experience of those involved in it. Complicating the common assumption that authentic black-authored fiction about slavery is starkly opposed to the traditional, racist fiction (and history) created by whites, the author suggests that discourses about American slavery are and always have been defined by connections rather than disjunctions. Ryan contends that African American writers didn't merely reject and move beyond traditional portrayals of the black past but rather actively engaged in a dynamic dialogue with white-authored versions of slavery and existing historiographical debates. The result is an ongoing cultural conversation that transcends both racial and disciplinary boundaries and is akin to the call-and-response style of African American gospel music.

Tim A. Ryan is an assistant professor of African American literature at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.