The detective story, staple of Western popular culture, has undergone a transformation in recent African American fiction. In the work of Ishmael Reed, Toni Morrison, and Ralph Ellison, among others, a pattern of detection emerges which has its roots in African mythology and aesthetics. The traditionally marginal figure of the victim here takes center stage, and the investigation focuses not on whodunit? but on how to undo it: how to invalidate the victimization by resurrecting the victim as a fully autonomous, de-marginalized figure.
| ISBN: | 9780820423821 |
| Publication date: | 1st October 1994 |
| Author: | Helen Lock |
| Publisher: | P. Lang an imprint of Lang, Peter, Publishing Inc. |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 147 pages |
| Series: | Studies on Themes and Motifs in Literature |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Language teaching theory and methods Society and culture: general |