|
|
Roger Rosenblatt’s book Black Fiction, in attempting to apply literary
rather than sociopolitical criteria to its subject, successfully alters the
approach taken by most previous studies. As Rosenblatt notes, criticism of Black
writing has often served as a pretext for expounding on Black history. Addison
Gayle’s recent work, for example, judges the value of Black fiction by overtly
political standards, rating each work according to the notions of Black identity
which it propounds.
Although fiction assuredly springs from political circumstances, its
authors react to those circumstances in ways other than ideological, and talking
about novels and stories primarily as instruments of ideology circumvents much
of the fictional enterprise. Rosenblatt’s literary analysis discloses affinities
and connections among works of Black fiction which solely political studies have
overlooked or ignored.
Writing acceptable criticism of Black fiction, however, presupposes giving
satisfactory answers to a number of questions. First of all, is there a
sufficient reason, other than the facial identity of the authors, to group
together works by Black authors? Second, how does Black fiction make itself
distinct from other modern fiction with which it is largely contemporaneous?
Rosenblatt shows that Black fiction constitutes a distinct body of writing that
has an identifiable, coherent literary tradition. Looking at novels written by
Black over the last eighty years, he discovers recurring concerns and designs
independent of chronology. These structures are thematic, and they spring, not
surprisingly, from the central fact that the Black characters in these novels
exist in a predominantly white culture, whether they try to conform to that
culture or rebel against it.
|
|