African American Literature and the American Southwest

A 'Minor' Dialogue

Authors

  • D. Seth Horton University of Virginia

Keywords:

African American literature, Southwest

Abstract

Utilizing Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the "minor" as a way to read Suzan-Lori Parks's novel, Getting Mother's Body, this essay explores how our understanding of African American literature might be altered by a “minor” region like the American Southwest. 

References

Armstrong, R. (2015) ‘Rewriting the Corpse in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Getting Mother’s Body.’ The Southern Quarterly, 53(1), pp. 41-56.

Campbell, N. (2016) Affective Critical Regionality. London: Rowman & Littlefield International.

Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1986) Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature. Trans. Polan, D. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Massumi, B. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Dicker/sun, G. (2010) ‘Demeter, Persephone and Willa Mae Beede: Suzan-Lori Parks Gets Mother’s Body.’ In Kolin, P. (ed) Suzan-Lori Parks: Essays on the Plays and Other Works. Jefferson: McFarland, pp. 156-68.

Larson, J. (2012) Understanding Suzan-Lori Parks. Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press.

Leise, C. and Gold, E. (2015) ‘A Toast to Mr. Smiles: Chiasmus and Comitragedy in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Signified Faulkner.’ MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S., 40(2), pp. 137-57.

Marshall, J., ‘A Moment with . . . Suzan-Lori Parks, Playwright.’ Seattle Post-Intelligencer. [Online] [Accessed 11 June 2024] https://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/books/article/a-moment-with suzan-lori-parks-playwright-1115418.php

Norman, B. (2012) Dead Women Talking: Figures of Injustice in American Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Norman, B. (2009) ‘The Historical Uncanny: Segregation Signs in Getting Mother's Body, a Post-Civil Rights American Novel.’ African American Review, 43(2/3), pp. 443-56.

Parks, S. (2003) Getting Mother's Body: A Novel. New York City: Random House.

Wright, L. (2011) ‘Casting the Bones of Willa Mae Beede: Passing and Performativity in Suzan-Lori Parks's Getting Mother's Body.’ Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 30(1), pp. 141-57.

Downloads

Published

2024-10-30

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2024)

Section

Thinking Space

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).