{"product_id":"black-pulp-genre-fiction-in-the-shadow-of-jim-crow-paperback","title":"Black Pulp: Genre Fiction in the Shadow of Jim Crow - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBrooks E. Hefner\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA deep dive into mid-century African American newspapers, exploring how Black pulp fiction reassembled genre formulas in the service of racial justice\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In recent years, Jordan Peele's \u003ci\u003eGet Out\u003c\/i\u003e, Marvel's \u003ci\u003eBlack Panther\u003c\/i\u003e, and HBO's \u003ci\u003eWatchmen\u003c\/i\u003e have been lauded for the innovative ways they repurpose genre conventions to criticize white supremacy, celebrate Black resistance, and imagine a more racially just world--important progressive messages widely spread precisely because they are packaged in popular genres. But it turns out, such generic retooling for antiracist purposes is nothing new. \u003cp\u003eAs Brooks E. Hefner's \u003ci\u003eBlack Pulp\u003c\/i\u003e shows, this tradition of antiracist genre revision begins even earlier than recent studies of Black superhero comics of the 1960s have revealed. Hefner traces it back to a phenomenon that began in the 1920s, to serialized (and sometimes syndicated) genre stories written by Black authors in Black newspapers with large circulations among middle- and working-class Black readers. From the pages of the \u003ci\u003ePittsburgh Courier\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eBaltimore Afro-American\u003c\/i\u003e, Hefner recovers a rich archive of African American genre fiction from the 1920s through the mid-1950s--spanning everything from romance, hero-adventure, and crime stories to westerns and science fiction. Reading these stories, Hefner explores how their authors deployed, critiqued, and reassembled genre formulas--and the pleasures they offer to readers--in the service of racial justice: to criticize Jim Crow segregation, racial capitalism, and the sexual exploitation of Black women; to imagine successful interracial romance and collective sociopolitical progress; and to cheer Black agency, even retributive violence in the face of white supremacy. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese popular stories differ significantly from contemporaneous, now-canonized African American protest novels that tend to represent Jim Crow America as a deterministic machine and its Black inhabitants as doomed victims. Widely consumed but since forgotten, these genre stories--and Hefner's incisive analysis of them--offer a more vibrant understanding of African American literary history. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrooks E. Hefner is professor of English at James Madison University. He is author of \u003ci\u003eThe Word on the Streets: The American Language of Vernacular Modernism\u003c\/i\u003e and codirector of the NEH-funded digital humanities project Circulating American Magazines. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 248\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 8.4 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 21, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47479315562674,"sku":"9781517911577","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/2f9957c586301e72a52b4026fdfe827e.webp?v=1779236209","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/black-pulp-genre-fiction-in-the-shadow-of-jim-crow-paperback","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}