Perspectives on Percival Everett

Keith B. Mitchell, Robin G. Vander

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781628460599
• eBook ISBN: 9781626742765
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Nordamerikanische Literaturkritik

Percival Everett (b. 1956) writes novels, short stories, poetry, and essays and is one of the most prolific, acclaimed, yet underexamined African American authors working today. Although to date Everett has published eighteen novels, three collections of short fiction, three poetry collections, and one children's book, his work has not garnered the critical attention that it deserves. Perhaps one of the most vexing problems scholars have had in trying to situate Everett's work is that they have found it difficult to place him and his work within a prescribed African American literary tradition. Because he happens to be African American, critics have expectations of so-called authentic African American fiction; however, his work often thwarts these expectations. In Perspectives on Percival Everett, scholars engage all of his creative production. On the one hand, Everett is an African American novelist. On the other hand, he pursues subject matters that seemingly have little to do with African American culture. The operative word here is "seemingly;" for as these essays demonstrate, Everett's works falls well within as well as outside of what most critics would deem the African American literary tradition. These essays examine issues of identity, authenticity, and semiotics, in addition to postmodernism and African American and American literary traditions—issues essential to understanding his aesthetic and political concerns.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction Changing the Frame, Framing the Change
• Chapter One “knowledge2 + certainty2 = squat2”
• Chapter Two “This Strange Juggler’s Game”
• Chapter Three Frenzy
• Chapter Four The Preservationist Impulse in Percival Everett’s
• Chapter Five The Mind-Body Split in American Desert
• Chapter Six A Bird of a Different Feather
• Chapter Seven “Do you mind if we make Craig Suder white?”
• Chapter Eight Charting the Body
• Chapter Nine When the Text Becomes the Stage
• Works Cited
• Contributors
• Index