African-American literary contributions during the Jim Crow era involved radical imaginings of racial justice and the heroic obliteration of White supremacy, thanks to the courageous creators of short fiction and serial narratives in Black-run newspapers. Professor Brooks E. Hefner of James Madison University explored and critiqued African-American romance, hero-adventure, westerns, crime, and science fiction from the 1920s to mid-1950s in “Black Pulp: Genre Fiction in the Shadow of Jim Crow.” Hefner reveals the dauntless envisioning of emancipatory futures by Black writers and illustrators.
In his analysis, Hefner reviewed genre fiction featured in the pages of Pittsburgh Courier and the Baltimore Afro-American periodicals. Works of fiction in these newspapers had huge readership among middle- and working-class Black devotees, creating a literary underground of readers during the tenuous period of Jim Crow segregation. Hefner takes a close look at how writers explored, reassembled, and expanded genres of fiction to advance the discourse of racial justice amid the oppressive sociopolitical environment of the time.
Many stories were unapologetically pro-Black and pro-justice. Some of the primary themes included interracial relationships, sexual objectification of Black women, tearing down White supremacist institutions, and racial retribution. Black genre writers define on their own terms what sociopolitical progress looks like when the interests of Blacks are prioritized. Decades before the wide-scale protests that marked the Civil Rights movement, Black writers used the power of the pen to convey their vision for a future when Black people had agency and control over their own lives and destinies.
Reading Hefner's critique as an immigrant woman of color who identifies with Generation X, I was roused by the power of resistance literature in stoking imagination about the promise and hope of liberation. I am a student of people-powered decolonization movements in other parts of the world, including my home country, the Philippines. Learning about Black fiction during the Jim Crow era underscored the fearlessness displayed by Black editors, writers, and creators of African American periodicals, who used the medium to provide an avenue to advance the values of racial equity. Even though these writings were not granted credibility by the literary establishment of the time, these writings have accomplished a great deal in contributing to the narrative of racial justice, cultural preservation, and liberation from White supremacy.
In his analysis, Hefner reviewed genre fiction featured in the pages of Pittsburgh Courier and the Baltimore Afro-American periodicals. Works of fiction in these newspapers had huge readership among middle- and working-class Black devotees, creating a literary underground of readers during the tenuous period of Jim Crow segregation. Hefner takes a close look at how writers explored, reassembled, and expanded genres of fiction to advance the discourse of racial justice amid the oppressive sociopolitical environment of the time.
Many stories were unapologetically pro-Black and pro-justice. Some of the primary themes included interracial relationships, sexual objectification of Black women, tearing down White supremacist institutions, and racial retribution. Black genre writers define on their own terms what sociopolitical progress looks like when the interests of Blacks are prioritized. Decades before the wide-scale protests that marked the Civil Rights movement, Black writers used the power of the pen to convey their vision for a future when Black people had agency and control over their own lives and destinies.
Reading Hefner's critique as an immigrant woman of color who identifies with Generation X, I was roused by the power of resistance literature in stoking imagination about the promise and hope of liberation. I am a student of people-powered decolonization movements in other parts of the world, including my home country, the Philippines. Learning about Black fiction during the Jim Crow era underscored the fearlessness displayed by Black editors, writers, and creators of African American periodicals, who used the medium to provide an avenue to advance the values of racial equity. Even though these writings were not granted credibility by the literary establishment of the time, these writings have accomplished a great deal in contributing to the narrative of racial justice, cultural preservation, and liberation from White supremacy.
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