Book contents
- Whiteness and American Literature
- Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture
- Whiteness and American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Whiteness and National Identity
- Part II Whiteness in the American Literary Imagination
- Chapter 8 Whiteness in Nineteenth-Century Speculative Writing
- Chapter 9 Whiteness and the Slave Narrative
- Chapter 10 Passing in Modernist Literature
- Chapter 11 Whiteness in African American Writers’ Nonfictional Works
- Chapter 12 The Historical Novel of Whiteness
- Chapter 13 The Unbearable Whiteness of Contemporary US Climate Fiction
- Chapter 14 The Twenty-First-Century White Life Novel
- Part III Approaches to Whiteness
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 11 - Whiteness in African American Writers’ Nonfictional Works
from Part II - Whiteness in the American Literary Imagination
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 June 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- Whiteness and American Literature
- Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture
- Whiteness and American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Whiteness and National Identity
- Part II Whiteness in the American Literary Imagination
- Chapter 8 Whiteness in Nineteenth-Century Speculative Writing
- Chapter 9 Whiteness and the Slave Narrative
- Chapter 10 Passing in Modernist Literature
- Chapter 11 Whiteness in African American Writers’ Nonfictional Works
- Chapter 12 The Historical Novel of Whiteness
- Chapter 13 The Unbearable Whiteness of Contemporary US Climate Fiction
- Chapter 14 The Twenty-First-Century White Life Novel
- Part III Approaches to Whiteness
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
A strategic, organized, and coordinated attack on the basic tenets of higher education in the United States was launched in late 2020 when the Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping was issued by Donald Trump, prohibiting most diversity training in federal agencies. Republican-controlled states quickly enshrined laws to limit how public schools, colleges, universities, and even individual faculty members can discuss racism, sexism, and gender identity in educational institutions. Characterized as a “culture war,” this conservative backlash to antidiscrimination inroads actually constitutes a massive resistance movement, the likes of which perhaps has not been seen in the United States since the civil rights era. Black writers and intellectuals have a long history of confronting the massive resistance of whiteness. Black nonfiction writings, in particular, offer revealing critiques and warnings about the impacts of whiteness in the modern world.
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- Whiteness and American Literature , pp. 163 - 176Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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