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Electronic Book
Author Soitos, Stephen F., 1947- author.

Title The blues detective : a study of African American detective fiction / Stephen F. Soitos.

Publication Info. Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [1996]
©1996

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe ACLS Humanities E-Book  Electronic Book    ---  Available
Description 1 online resource (xiii, 260 pages)
text txt rdacontent
computer c rdamedia
online resource cr rdacarrier
Series ACLS Humanities E-Book.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-252) and index.
Contents 1. The Paradigmatic Gesture -- 2. The Tropes of Black Detection -- 3. Early African American Adaptations of Detective Conventions -- 4. Detective of the Harlem Renaissance: Rudolph Fisher -- 5. City within a City: The Detective Fiction of Chester Himes -- 6. The Black Anti-Detective Novel.
Summary This illuminating book makes the case for a tradition of African American detective fiction -- novels written by black Americans about black detectives and incorporating distinctly African American tropes and themes. Beginning with Pauline Hopkins in 1901, black authors consciously altered and subverted the formulas of detective fiction in significant ways. Such writers as J. E. Bruce, Rudolph Fisher, Chester Himes, Ishmael Reed, and Clarence Major created a new genre that responded to the social and political concerns of the black community. Examining the work of these authors, Stephen Soitos frames his analysis in terms of four uniquely African American tropes: altered detective personas, double-consciousness detection, black vernaculars, and hoodoo. He argues that black writers created sleuths who were in fact "blues detectives," engaged not only in solving crimes, but also in exploring the mysteries of black life and culture. Soitos grounds his study in African American literary theory, particularly the work of Houston Baker, Bernard Bell, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. He offers both a new way of conceiving black detective fiction and a series of insightful readings of books in this genre. -- From product description.
Reproduction Electronic text and image data. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University of Michigan, Michigan Publishing, 2024. EPUB file. ([ACLS Humanities E-Book])
Note All rights reserved.
Subject Detective and mystery stories, American -- History and criticism.
American fiction -- African American authors -- History and criticism.
African Americans in literature.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Added Author American Council of Learned Societies, issuing body.
In: ACLS Humanities E-Book. http://www.humanitiesebook.org/
ISBN 9780870239953 (electronic bk.)
0870239953
0585084165 (electronic bk.)
9780585084169 (electronic bk.)
0870239961
0870239953
9780870239960 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
9781685750565 (ebk)
Standard No. heb40171 hdl

 
    
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