A01=Howard Rambsy II.
archetype
Author_Howard Rambsy II.
Category=DSB
Category=DSRC
Category=JBSL
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
literary production
muse
trope
Product details
- ISBN 9780813944135
- Weight: 350g
- Dimensions: 151 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 30 Apr 2020
- Publisher: University of Virginia Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
How have African American writers drawn on bad men and black boys as creative touchstones for their evocative and vibrant art? This is the question posed by Howard Rambsy's new book, which explores bad men as a central, recurring, and understudied figure in African American literature, and music. By focusing on how various iterations of the black bad man figure serve as creative muse and inspiration for literary production, Rambsy puts a wide variety of contemporary African American literary and cultural works in conversation with creativity research for the first time.
Employing concepts such as playfulness, productivity, divergent thinking, and problem finding, Rambsy examines the works of a wide range of writers—including Elizabeth Alexander, Amiri Baraka, Paul Beatty, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Tyehimba Jess, Trymaine Lee, Adrian Matejka, Aaron McGruder, Evie Shockley, and Kevin Young—who have drawn on notions of bad black men and boys to create innovative and challenging works in a variety of genres. Through groundbreaking readings, Rambsy demonstrates the fruitfulness of viewing black literary art through the lens of the field of creativity research.
Howard Rambsy II is Professor of English at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and author of The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry.
