Whiteness as Usual? American Africanism in the 21st-Century Novel
Whiteness as Usual? American Africanism in the 21st-Century Novel
Dissertation
- worked out by Lisa Seuberth
- Cohort 1 (since 2022)
Whiteness as Usual? American Africanism in the 21st-Century Novel
The dissertation project investigates the reverberations of the cultural practice Toni Morrison called “American Africanism” in the contemporary US-American public sphere and how its award-winning literatures contribute to the value system in which respective White supremacist and anti-Black discourses circulate. I argue that texts which encounter the dichotomous separation of Black and White with a racially literate and transcultural program increasingly receive cultural capital in the form of literary awards in the 21st century. The aim of this project therefore is to disclose not only White supremacist and anti-Black patterns in the US-American award industry and its prize-winning novels but also the various strategies used for their deconstruction.