Representing the race

The political value of African American literature has long been a topic of great debate among American writers, both black and white, from Thomas Jefferson to Barack Obama. In his compelling new book, "Representing the Race", Gene Andrew Jarrett traces the genealogy of this topic in order to develop an innovative political history of African American literature. Jarrett examines texts of every sort{u2014}pamphlets, autobiographies, cultural criticism, poems, short stories, and novels{u2014}to parse the myths of authenticity, popular culture, nationalism, and militancy that have come to…