Beschreibung
This book explores key texts of the black gay culture of the 1980s and
90s. Starting with an analysis of the political discourse in anthologies
such as In the Life and Brother to Brother, it
identifies the references to the Harlem Renaissance and the Protest Era as
common elements of black gay discourse. This connection to African
American cultural and political traditions legitimizes black gay identity
and criticizes the construction of gay identity as white. Readings of
Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston, Samuel R. Delany’s Atlantis: Model 1924 and The Motion of Light in Water, Melvin Dixon’s Vanishing Rooms, Randall Kenan’s A Visitation of Spirits and Steven Corbin’s No Easy Place to Be demonstrate how these strategies of signifying are used in affirmative, humorous, and ironic ways.
