Abdur-Rahman, Aliyyah I., 55
affect: and depression, 96, 108–110, 114–116, 126–128; and historical knowledge, 29, 30–31, 33, 34, 67–68, 70, 79–82 (see also erotohistoriography); literary, 40, 118, 155; and masochism, 57, 58, 87; and prohibitive reading, 42; and racial formation, 116; theory, 96, 108–109, 114, 126–128, 187n36, 187n37, 188n43, 188n45
African American literary studies: constraints upon, 171–172, 174–175n13; historical turn, 2, 4–7, 11–13, 16, 17–19, 25, 35, 112, 128–129, 131, 133, 137–140, 143, 147, 149, 156, 178n33. See also contemporary narrative of slavery; prohibitive reading; therapeutic reading
Ahad, Badia, 7
Ahmed, Sara, 188n43
allegory: of African American literary origins, 39; definition of, 190n20; masochism as political allegory (see masochism); of post-Civil Rights grief, 107, 120, 124, 148; as narrative strategy, 140–141, 143–144, 190n21
Alexander, Elizabeth, 169
Awkward, Michael, 23, 24, 106, 176n30
Beloved (Morrison), 18–29; and critique of psychopathological discourse, 22, 24; and Jazz, 37, 43, 167–168; as literary exemplar, 2, 133, 134; and Paradise, 159, 164, 167–168; and postmemory, 26–28; and prohibitive reading, 18–19, 25, 27–29, 41; rememory, 20, 25–26
Best, Stephen, 2, 15, 18, 25, 25–29, 35, 40
black cultural nationalism, 56, 67, 70, 101, 149, 173n3
Bradley, David, Chaneysville Incident (see Chaneysville Incident)
Brand, Dionne, 9
Brown, Wendy, 11, 28, 60, 63, 64–65, 77–78, 87, 182n21, 186n23
Brown v. Board of Education (1954), 101, 185n18
Butler, Judith, 51, 104, 185n11
Butler, Octavia, 67–68, 75, 94; Kindred (see Kindred)
Byerman, Keith, 24, 53, 139, 173n5
Byrd, Rudolph P., 154
censorship: discursive, 55–56, 65, 75, 178n33; psychological, 67, 80, 128 (see also melancholia; repression)
Chaneysville Incident (Bradley), 14, 30–36, 38, 161, 174n6
Cheng, Anne Anlin, 7, 97–100, 113–114, 116, 123
Christian, Barbara, 22
Civil Rights idealism: ambivalence toward, 120–128; definition of, 15, 101; as lost love object, 102, 104–107, 113, 128; personification of, 101–107, 110, 111–112, 119–121, 148–149
Civil Rights Movement: decline of, 11, 17, 96, 107–108, 148–149, 171; history of, 185–186n18; literary representation of, 12–13, 102–107, 110, 120–129, 148–149; and patriarchal leadership, 121, 123–125; and periodization of literary history, 2, 6, 17, 173n3
Cole, Alyson M., 56, 178n34, 180–181n5
contemporary narrative of slavery: and canonization, 6, 15, 25, 95–97, 112, 131–135; critique of, 5, 18–19, 97 (see also prohibitive reading); desire in, 53, 60, 76, 90, 141, 147, 149, 152; generic description of, 2–3, 11, 24, 58, 137, 138–139, 170, 173n2, 176n28; grief in, 11–12, 14, 15–16, 128–129, 141, 147, 149, 168; subversion of, 132–133, 138–139, 140–141, 159; as therapeutic, 2–3, 4, 53, 117, 139, 143, 173n5 (see also therapeutic reading)
Cooper, Brittney, 55
Corregidora (Jones), 76–87; blues in, 79–83, 86, 184n60; and erotohistoriography, 78, 79–85; inheritance of trauma in, 76–77, 78–85, 183n40; masochistic desire in, 15, 54, 76–87, 90–92; political masochism and, 77–78, 86, 87; repression of the present in, 76–77, 128; Scott on, 90–92
Cvetkovich, Ann, 44–45, 66, 108, 184n2, 187n37, 187n38
Davis, Thadious, 179–180n60
Dayan, Joan, 178n31
Delany, Samuel, 57
depression, 96, 108, 148, 184n2; and narrative form, 7, 16, 96, 110–115, 117–119, 126–128, 141, 171, 175n20; racial depression, 108–109, 113–116, 187n38. See also affect; melancholia
Douglass, Frederick, 38, 61, 181n19
Dubey, Madhu, 87, 176n23, 184n60
Edwards, Erica R., 165
“Elbow Room” (McPherson), 110–119; and narrative form, 110–114, 188n44; and presentism, 15, 96, 110, 111–113, 117–118; representation of emotion in, 110, 112–118
erotohistoriography, 68–69, 72–73, 74, 78–80, 82, 85. See also historiography; masochism
Fanon, Frantz, 88–89
Felman, Shoshana, 22, 37, 175n19
feminism: critique of historical discourse, 158, 160–165; critique of literary representation, 75–76, 144–145, 156–158; personification of, 136; theory, 8, 43–44, 55, 58, 66, 176n31, 182n34, 183n47
Fletcher, Angus, 190n20
freedom: and constraint, 63, 74, 90 (see also masochism); cost of, 4, 15; Emancipation, 25, 47; literary representation of, 13, 57, 84, 135, 137, 153–154, 156, 160, 162, 166; as political ideal, 13, 47, 56, 61, 89, 101, 182n20; psychological, 2–5, 53, 57, 69, 79, 102, 133 (see also therapeutic reading); teleological quest for, 13, 47, 149, 150, 151–153, 176n33
Freeman, Elizabeth, 43, 66–69, 79–80, 82, 84, 183n47
Freud, Sigmund: on dream analysis, 192–193n57; on Nachträglichkeit, 11, 14; on masochism (see masochism); on melancholia (see melancholia); on repression (see repression); on serial dreams, 10, 167, 176n27; on the uncanny, 151–152
Friedman, Susan Stanford, 10, 192–193n57
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., 169–170, 175n13
Giovanni, Nikki, 101
Halberstam, Judith, 88
Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, 185n18
Hartman, Saidiya, 7, 24, 145, 191n27
Hilfrich, Carola, 160
Hirsch, Marianne, 26–28, 45, 177n21
historiography, 6, 177n9, 179n40; as fetish object, 34; gendered organization of, 156, 158, 161–162, 165–167; limitations of, 32, 66–71, 182n33 (see also erotohistoriography); objectivist, 17, 29, 30–32, 34 (see also periodization; prohibitive reading); revisionist, 33, 47–48, 70, 173n3; as traumatic symptom, 32, 38. See also history
history: conceptualization of, 18–19, 25, 31–34, 36–37, 41, 45, 47–48, 66–70, 74–78, 80–81, 110, 137–139, 147, 159–168; fantasy of redemptive return, 3–4, 8, 11, 15, 19, 20, 33, 35, 37–38, 47, 53, 57–58, 61–63, 66, 71–74, 76, 92, 94, 96, 139, 140, 147; intangible legacies of, 9, 11–12, 35–36, 45, 55–56, 167–168; irretrievability of, 5, 17–19, 25, 29, 39, 41, 46, 50, 54, 96, 143–144; as literary theme, 5, 17–19, 25, 29, 39, 41, 46, 50, 54, 96, 143–144 (see also contemporary narrative of slavery). See also historiography
Holland, Sharon Patricia, 55
identification: with ancestral past, 6, 18, 25, 45, 65, 67–68, 70, 72, 75–76, 77, 83, 159; psychoanalytic, 65, 97, 99, 108, 109, 115, 124, 152; racial, 6, 9, 37, 98, 100, 113; reader’s, 25, 118, 145
Jazz (Morrison), 14, 36–41, 159, 167–168
Johnson, Charles, 134, 145, 146–147, 157; Oxherding Tale (see Oxherding Tale)
Johnson, Mat, Pym (see Pym)
Jones, Douglas A., 18
Jones, Gayl, Corregidora (see Corregidora)
Kawash, Samira, 24
Keizer, Arlene, 7, 24, 55, 57, 139, 143, 155, 173n2, 173n5
Kelley, Theresa M., 141, 190n21
Kenan, Randall, Visitation of Spirits (see Visitation of Spirits)
Kindred (Butler), 61–76; Butler on, 67–68; and desire for historical repair, 15, 54, 85–86; and erotohistoriography, 69, 72–76 (see also erotohistoriography); ideal of self-sovereignty in, 87, 94; and political masochism, 61–65, 69, 181n17 (see also masochism)
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 12–13, 101–102, 106–107, 119, 120–121, 128, 159, 176n33, 185–186n18, 186n22, 186n25
Krafft-Ebing, Richard von, 59
La Capra, Dominick, 27
Lee, Andrea, “Prior’s Room,” 188n46; Sarah Phillips (see Sarah Phillips)
Lenzer, Gertrud, 59
Levine, Caroline, 175n20
Leys, Ruth, 177n6
Lipsitz, George, 192n47
Lubiano, Wahneema, 188n44
MacIntyre, Alasdair, 177n9
Marable, Manning, 176n33
March on Washington (1963), 12, 105, 186n25
Marriott, David, 24
masochism: BDSM, 181n6; critical resistance to, 55–56, 58, 86–87, 90–91; Delany on, 57; Freud on, 8, 54, 59–61, 99; history of concept, 59; and narrative form, 7, 8, 15, 16, 53–54, 58, 61–65, 68, 70, 92, 96–97, 112, 141, 153, 171, 175n20; political allegorization of, 55, 59–66, 69, 77–78, 86, 87–88, 182n21; and queer theory, 55, 58, 66–69, 88–89; reparative potential of, 55, 57–58, 66–69, 71–73, 76, 80–86, 88–90, 183n47; Scott on, 88–91, 183n56. See also blues; erotohistoriography; pain
McBride, James, Song Yet Sung (see Song Yet Sung)
McDowell, Deborah E., 173n3
McPherson, “Elbow Room” (see “Elbow Room”)
melancholia: and contemporary narrative of slavery, 15–16, 128–129, 141, 148–150; Freud on, 96, 97–98, 102–104, 106–107, 123–124, 149, 185n7, 185n8, 185n11, 189n52; racial melancholia, 98–100, 107–108, 109, 113–114, 116, 123–126, 127, 128, 141, 188n43. See also depression
memory: affect theory and, 126–128; African American collective, 1–2, 4–5, 19, 44, 121 (see also identification); critical suspicion of, 5, 18, 25, 33, 158 (see also prohibitive reading); gender and, 162, 166–167, 192n47; inaccessibility of, 27, 43, 44, 46, 96, 111, 123–126; intergenerational, 5, 11, 25–27, 30, 42, 78, 96 (see also postmemory; rememory); moral imperative for, 4, 21, 30, 31, 46, 53, 76–77, 79, 139; personal, 47, 49, 81, 102, 122–123, 124, 166–167; psychoanalytic theory of, 14, 102, 106–107, 123–126, 167; public, 47–48, 61–62, 121, 182n20; “Site of Memory” (see “Site of Memory”); traumatic (see trauma)
Menand, Louis, 163
Michaels, Walter Benn, 18, 19, 25–27, 40, 177–178n24
Mitchell, Angelyn, 74, 138, 173n5
Morris, Susana, 55
Morrison, Toni, 2, 19, 35, 68, 134, 138, 163–164, 189n3; Beloved (see Beloved); Bluest Eye, 185n16; Jazz (see Jazz); “The Site of Memory” (see “Site of Memory”); Paradise (see Paradise); Playing in the Dark, 132, 189n3
Moten, Fred, 24
Muñoz, José Esteban, 43–44, 48, 114, 188n43, 188n45
Nachträglichkeit (deferred action), 11, 14
Nash, Jennifer C., 55
Oxherding Tale (Johnson), 133–159; critical perspectives on, 139, 145, 155; meta-commentary on contemporary narrative of slavery, 134–135, 138–139, 141, 143, 147, 142–154, 167, 172; representation of women in, 144–145, 156–158, 161, 164; use of allegory in, 140–141; Zen Buddhism in, 154–155, 191n36, 192n38
pain: aesthetics of, 145, 178n31, 182n33; critical repudiation of, 18, 28, 65; and empathy, 68, 70, 76, 94; heritability of, 4, 45–47, 78, 80; as reparative, 3–4, 6, 15, 53–54, 66, 68, 81, 84–86, 91, 101, 116 (see also masochism); vicarious, 11, 53, 67–68, 76
Paradise (Morrison), 158–168; feminist models for recording history, 158, 161–167, 172; and the love trilogy, 159, 167–168
periodization: of African American literature, 17; and credibility of historical representation, 17–19, 22, 29; as traumatic symptom, 32
Perry, Phyllis Alesia, Stigmata (see Stigmata)
Phillips, Caryl, 43
Poe, Edgar Allan, 131–132, 189n3
postmemory, 25–29, 30, 36, 38, 40, 42, 45, 46, 50. See also rememory; trauma
prohibitive reading, 5–7, 14, 16, 19, 25–29, 32–36, 41–42, 45, 50, 53, 97, 129, 138, 140–141, 150, 154, 178n33
protest novel, 146–147, 150, 169, 174–175n13
psychoanalysis, 8, 14, 37; critiques of, 7–8, 22–24, 108–109, 184n2, 187n36; and literary criticism, 10–12, 16, 167, 170–172, 175n19, 175n20; theory of humiliation, 125; usefulness for African American Studies, 9; working through, 57. See also depression; Freud, Sigmund; masochism; melancholia; trauma
Pym (Johnson), 131–133, 134, 189n3
Quashie, Kevin, 193n5
queer: desire, 48, 68, 70; identity, 48; temporality, 43–45, 48–51, 68–69; theory, 43–45, 55, 58, 66, 68–69, 88–89, 183n47
race: in cultural imagination, 7, 8, 47, 95–96, 101, 106, 110, 157, 158, 176n33, 178n30; epistemology of, 9, 16, 23, 28, 115–116; and identity, 5, 48, 100, 104–107, 154–155, 177–178n24; and literary history, 39–40, 120, 132, 169–170, 176n30. See also racism
racism, 7, 41, 55, 70, 93–94, 132–133, 139, 181n6; emotional effects of, 108–109, 112–116, 187n37, 188n43, 188n45; erotics of, 75, 76; and identity formation, 98, 100, 108, 113, 116, 123–126; and psychoanalysis, 7–8, 23; and violence, 75, 90–91, 120, 159. See also race
Randall, Alice, Rebel Yell (see Rebel Yell)
reader: affective experience of, 20–21, 25, 36, 38, 41, 113, 118, 137–140, 142–145, 151; as fictional character, 7, 132–133, 155; implied, 14, 174n8; inculcation of, 2–5, 18, 25, 28, 37, 53, 68, 138, 173n5; interpretive labor of, 34, 42–43, 116, 131, 133, 140, 150, 156, 157, 166–168, 171–172; relationship to history, 35, 137–140
Rebel Yell (Randall), 15, 96, 119–129
recognition: denial of, 60, 63, 72, 77, 86, 123, 181n18; fantasy of historical, 13, 37, 41, 62–64, 71–73, 85, 142; misrecognition, 109, 113–114, 117–118; political, 28, 60, 62–64
Reed, Adolph, Jr., 178n30
Reid-Pharr, Robert, 18, 41, 43, 178n33
rememory, 22, 25–26, 30, 32, 44. See also postmemory; trauma
repression: historical, 4, 53, 66–68, 164, 183n40; psychoanalytic, 10, 113, 126, 151–152, 168, 191n34, 192–193n57 (see also melancholia); reader’s, 4, 53, 118, 173n5; of sexuality, 46, 74–75; textual, 10, 138, 147–148, 152, 166
Rody, Caroline, 177n12
Rushdy, Ashraf H. A., 24, 78, 82, 155, 173n5
Sacher-Masoch, Leopold, 59
Sarah Phillips (Lee), 93–109; companion text to, 188n46; contemporary racism in, 93–95, 99–100, 109, 118; critical perspectives on, 94–95, 176n30, 185n5; presentism in, 11, 15, 94–96, 112, 118; and racial depression, 109 (see also depression); and racial melancholia, 99–100, 102–107, 119–120 (see also melancholia)
Scott, Darieck, 55, 57, 88–91, 183n56
Scott, Daryl Michael, 23
Sedgwick, Eve, 108–109, 126, 187n36, 189n58
Sharpe, Christina, 24, 55–56, 58, 183n40
serial dreams, 10, 167, 176n27
“Site of Memory” (Morrison), 1–2, 37–38, 169–170
slave narrative, 37–38, 132, 135, 137, 151, 169, 174n13
slavery: as literary theme, 2–3, 16, 25, 37–38, 67–68, 128–129, 133–134, 147–148 (see also contemporary narrative of slavery); as original site of African American trauma, 12, 24, 30, 37, 44, 46–47, 53, 57, 63, 94, 112, 152, 176n33, 178n31, 191n27 (see also history; trauma); psychological legacy of, 7, 11, 37, 55–56, 171
Smith, Valerie, 94
Snitow, Ann, 22
Song Yet Sung (McBride), 12–13, 15
Stigmata (Perry), 3–4, 5, 174n6
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 146–147
Tate, Claudia, 7
therapeutic reading: hermeneutic of, 2, 4–7, 8, 16, 18–19, 24, 42, 53, 118, 138, 150, 173n5; as literary figure, 14–15, 53, 63, 67–68, 92, 140–141, 143, 154
trauma: in daily life, 44–50; historical, 2, 3–4, 6, 11, 35, 40–50, 57, 58, 159; Holocaust and, 23–24, 44, 177n6; and identity formation, 98; intergenerational, 4, 25–26, 30, 46–47, 76–77, 81–83, 95 (see also postmemory); as literary theme, 7, 15–16, 94–97, 128–129, 143, 148, 152, 168; and masochism, 57–58, 69, 77–78; and melancholia, 99, 128–129, 149, 158; memories, 22, 25–26, 47, 148; and narrative form, 7, 16, 20, 22, 43, 96–97, 112, 133, 141, 159, 164, 171, 175n20 (see also traumatic time); and narrativity, 20, 80; post-traumatic stress disorder, 23; sexual, 44, 54, 72–73, 76–87, 90–91, 112, 127; theoretical discourse on, 14, 19–20, 22–24, 26–28, 31–32, 43–45, 51, 98, 177n6
traumatic time, 19–22, 24, 29, 31, 33–35, 38, 41–42, 43, 44, 47, 50, 78, 129, 164. See also trauma
unconscious, 40, 97, 106, 113, 165. See also repression
Van der Zee, James, 36
victims: agency of, 82–83, 90–92; anti-victim discourse, 56, 178n34, 180–181n5; desire of, 58; historical context of, 18, 79, 87; identification with, 28, 67–70, 73, 75–76, 79–81; powerlessness of, 78, 87; and racism, 56, 181n6
Visitation of Spirits (Kenan), 45–51, 179–180n60
Walker, Kara, 57
Warren, Kenneth W., 15, 17–18, 29, 33, 35, 40, 110, 129, 177n6, 178n30
Washington, Mary Helen, 94–95