Yohann Lucas (Université de Rouen Normandie)
“Building an African-American Literary Canon: Aesthetic and Political Perspectives”
Discutante : Amélie Macaud
This paper aims at unpacking some of the dynamics at play in canon-formation processes, through the case study of the African American literary tradition. Over the course of the 20th century. Black American authors and intellectuals repeatedly insisted on the idea that African American literature was a weapon to be used in the fight against segregation and for collective emancipation. The expectation of an inherent political dimension sometimes clouded literary potential by, either, imposing specific themes and standard English as the main expressive vehicle, or, by simply barring publication. Yet, the intersection between politics and literature did not merely occur at the level of texts, but was already inscribed in the very format of publications considered, namely magazines and anthologies. Editorial choices were political choices which had an impact on the way literature was evaluated, both when it first came out and for subsequent assessments. Multiple actors contributed to the symbolic tug-of-war between literary and political considerations which affected the production, reproduction, and preservation of texts, eventually shaping the contours of an African American canon.
Yohann Lucas is a senior lecturer at Université de Rouen-Normandie, a member of the research unit Équipe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Aires Culturelles (ERIAC EA 4705). His research has focused on African American cultural magazines and literary anthologies from the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, especially on the incidence of these publications on the canon-formation processes of African American literature.