Book contents
- A History of African American Autobiography
- A History of African American Autobiography
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- A Chronology of African American Life Writing
- Contributors
- Chapter 1 Crafting a Credible Black Self in African American Life Writing
- Part I Origins and Histories
- Part II Individuals and Communities
- Chapter 12 Spiritual Autobiography, Past and Present
- Chapter 13 Life Writings of Contemporary African American Women
- Chapter 14 The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a Transitional Black Arts Text
- Chapter 15 Black Queer Life Writing
- Chapter 16 African American Celebrity Auto/Biographies
- Chapter 17 Mixed-Race Autobiographical Narratives
- Chapter 18 Black Biography, Past and Present
- Chapter 19 Black Lives in Contemporary Persona Poems
- Chapter 20 Depicting African American Life in Graphics and Visual Cultures
- Chapter 21 Life Writing for Black Children and Youth
- Chapter 22 Black Life Writing for Young Readers
- Chapter 23 Can Cups Be Books? Or, Other Ways to Recognize African American Autobiography
- Index
Chapter 15 - Black Queer Life Writing
from Part II - Individuals and Communities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2021
- A History of African American Autobiography
- A History of African American Autobiography
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- A Chronology of African American Life Writing
- Contributors
- Chapter 1 Crafting a Credible Black Self in African American Life Writing
- Part I Origins and Histories
- Part II Individuals and Communities
- Chapter 12 Spiritual Autobiography, Past and Present
- Chapter 13 Life Writings of Contemporary African American Women
- Chapter 14 The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a Transitional Black Arts Text
- Chapter 15 Black Queer Life Writing
- Chapter 16 African American Celebrity Auto/Biographies
- Chapter 17 Mixed-Race Autobiographical Narratives
- Chapter 18 Black Biography, Past and Present
- Chapter 19 Black Lives in Contemporary Persona Poems
- Chapter 20 Depicting African American Life in Graphics and Visual Cultures
- Chapter 21 Life Writing for Black Children and Youth
- Chapter 22 Black Life Writing for Young Readers
- Chapter 23 Can Cups Be Books? Or, Other Ways to Recognize African American Autobiography
- Index
Summary
This chapter investigates the literary practices by which twentieth-century Black queer writers have simultaneously utilized, challenged, and modified the generic conventions of autobiography. They do so, Abdur-Rahman argues, to articulate nonnormative pleasures and collective politics that are not readily conveyed by standard autobiographical writing. Because autobiography typically follows the trajectory of a linear narrative of progress, conventional autobiographies capture neither the complicated histories of African diasporic subjects nor the quotidian experiences and social conditions that shape collective Black life and politics. Queer autobiographies typically take the form of the coming-out narrative, which emphasizes the primacy of sexuality over other components of personal identity and other forms of (communal) becoming and belonging. Abdur-Rahman deploys recent reconfigurations of sexual disclosure from "coming out to inviting in" to argue that Black queer life writing redefines the domains around which sexual identities are believed to cohere.
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- Information
- A History of African American Autobiography , pp. 239 - 254Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021