A God of Justice?": The Problem of Evil in Twentieth-Century Black Literature

by Qiana J. Whitted

Overview

Focusing on the representations of spiritual crisis in twentieth-century African American fiction and autobiography, Qiana J. Whitted asks how some of the most distinguished writers of this tradition wrestle with the inexplicable nature of God and the experience of unmerited natural and moral sufferings such as racial oppression. Although this spiritual and existential dilemma of "the problem of evil" is not unique to African Americans, writers such as Countée Cullen, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ernest Gaines, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison offer paradigmatic examples of it in black life and culture after World War I. Whitted argues that these spiritual struggles so often articulated through the cry for divine justice are central to an understanding of modern black literary engagements with religion. Chapters explore the discourse of religious doubt and questioning through the crucified black Christ and the mourner’s bench tropes, womanist spiritual infidelity, and the humanist improvisations of blues narratives.

For too long, the author contends, literary critics have explained this suffering through platitudes of endurance and communal redemption, valorizing problematic notions of unquestioned faith and self-sacrifice. By questioning what is at stake for African Americans who call for divine justice, Whitted challenges the assumptions about African American religiosity by revealing an alternative tradition of narrative dissent and philosophical engagement. In doing so, she broadens the horizons of critical inquiry in black literary and cultural studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813927978
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	04/13/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Qiana J. Whitted is Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction: "Would He Be to Us a God of Justice?" 1

1 "In My Flesh Shall I See God": Ritual Violence, "The Black Christ" Racial Redemption Countée Cullen's 31

2 "Wrastl' On Jacob": Richard Wright and the Trope of the Mourner's Bench 53

3 "A Loveless, Barren, Hopeless Western Marriage": Spiritual Infidelity in the Fiction of Nella Larsen Alice Walker 77

4 "There Is No Way Not to Suffer": Evil Ruptures and Improvisations of Joy in "Sonny's Blues" and "The Sky Is Gray" 109

5 "But God Is Not a Mystery. We Are.": Toni Morrison and the Problem of Paradise 147

Conclusion: "Something as Inexplicable as Water" 183

Notes 189

Bibliography 203

Index 217

Editorial Reviews

What most distinguishes 'A God of Justice?' is that it firmly ushers the study of religion in African American literature into the modern age by focusing on what most frames religious reflection in the twentieth century: the renewed focus on evil and suffering in a ghastly century and the religious doubt it has helped engender. This is the first study that explores modern black literature and religion, and the author handles crucial texts and authors with creativity, insight, and aplomb.

Clarence Hardy

Brilliantly conceived. 'A God of Justice?' is original and will become a model in the field of African American literary studies and beyond.

Katherine Clay Bassard

"What most distinguishes 'A God of Justice?' is that it firmly ushers the study of religion in African American literature into the modern age by focusing on what most frames religious reflection in the twentieth century: the renewed focus on evil and suffering in a ghastly century and the religious doubt it has helped engender. This is the first study that explores modern black literature and religion, and the author handles crucial texts and authors with creativity, insight, and aplomb. "—Clarence Hardy, Dartmouth University, author of James Baldwin’s God: Sex, Hope, and Crisis in Black Holiness Culture

"Brilliantly conceived. 'A God of Justice?' is original and will become a model in the field of African American literary studies and beyond. "—Katherine Clay Bassard, Virginia Commonwealth University, author of Spiritual Interrogations: Culture, Gender, and Community in Early African American Women’s Writing

From the Publisher