Lecture Notes for Nov 5, 2008

Themes in the African-American Post-Vietnam Lit. ? Historical distance- distance between present and past of the novel ? Importance of Home- character dissociated from home goes back, departure and return, return is always a moment of crises ? Being driven crazy by family history ? Quest for higher education- formal education (ambivilance toward it), dossociated characters from home, ambivilant potential for deliverance ? Transgenerational conflict- tension has epic significance ? Sexuality- how sex function, how it should be understood, what does sexuality have to do with history? ? Homosexuality- not deliverance ? Intra vs. Interracial romance ? Oppresion by men ? Spirituality- extent to which it's evoked as relevant force in what we've seen ? Infrastructure of social equality being there ? Sickness and convalescence- what kinds of sickness what does it wear for family existence, history isn't recooperative, family history deosn't perform slavation ? Collisions of world views- universe is different for other characters, what significance of universal determinations ? Not directly political in books (except in Philadelphia Fire and Mumbo Jumbo) but most deal with politics in different way The Great Migration ? Rural vs. urban cities, great migration ? After Civil War- WWI black population shift, to the north, ratio shifts ? East coast urban centers ? A referendum on the Great Migration ? Argument liberal north offers more liberal legislation and econimic opportunities (this is what Philadelphia Fire is about) ? Black mayor in Philadephia ? Domestic bombing hadn't taken place in other 20 years Black Writers ? Blackness is done, sensibilites different ? Existential as opposed to grounded ? Post-racial, beyond race ? First generation has a fit about what goes on at their time, right after the social apparatus is in place ? Explosive growth of black middle class ? Black middle class moves out at black middle class