Synopses & Reviews
Raising the Dead is a groundbreaking, interdisciplinary exploration of deathandrsquo;s relation to subjectivity in twentieth-century American literature and culture. Sharon Patricia Holland contends that black subjectivity in particular is connected intimately to death. For Holland, travelling through andldquo;the space of deathandrdquo; gives us, as cultural readers, a nuanced and appropriate metaphor for understanding what is at stake when bodies, discourses, and communities collide.
and#9;Holland argues that the presence of blacks, Native Americans, women, queers, and other andldquo;minoritiesandrdquo; in society is, like death, andldquo;almost unspeakable.andrdquo; She gives voice toandmdash;or raisesandmdash;the dead through her examination of works such as the movie Menace II Society, Toni Morrisonandrsquo;s novel Beloved, Leslie Marmon Silkoandrsquo;s Almanac of the Dead, Randall Kenanandrsquo;s A Visitation of Spirits, and the work of the all-white, male, feminist hip-hop band Consolidated. In challenging established methods of literary investigation by putting often-disparate voices in dialogue with each other, Holland forges connections among African-American literature and culture, queer and feminist theory.
and#9;Raising the Dead will be of interest to students and scholars of American culture, African-American literature, literary theory, gender studies, queer theory, and cultural studies.
Review
"In her wide-ranging study, Holland argues that the alterity of minority statuses (blackness, queerness, etc.) can be considered to be akin to death. Her 'readings' include Toni Morrison's Beloved and Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead, Randall Kennan and James Baldwin, and the techno music of Consolidated; her brief conclusion covers Bill T.Jones and Tupac Shakur. Holland's readings of the literature are the most compelling aspect of her study, where the metaphor of death seems most applicable. Unfortunately, though, the promise of Holland's opening gambit seems somehow unfulfilled by the book's end." Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
andldquo;Raising the Dead is a tour de force filled with provocative, original, and imaginative observations and insights. Sharon Holland draws on a dazzling range of influences and interprets an impressive array of diverse cultural forms as she asks and answers crucial questions about ancestry, origins, and heritage in African American and Native American life and culture.andrdquo;andmdash;George Lipsitz, University of California, San Diego
Review
andldquo;A thorough, challenging, and compelling investigation of the themes of subjectivity, death, and their interrelation in twentieth-century American literature and culture.andrdquo;andmdash;Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
Review
andldquo;A work of theoretical power and brilliant interpretive prowess.andrdquo;andmdash;Wahneema Lubiano, Duke University
Synopsis
Through a series of literary and cultural readings, argues that African-Americans have a special relation to death arising from their death-like social marginality.
About the Author
Sharon Patricia Holland is Assistant Professor of English at Stanford University.
Table of Contents
Acknoweldgments ix
Introduction: Raising the Dead 1
1 Death and the Nations Subjects 13
2 Bakulu Discourse: Bodies Made andquot;Fleshandquot; in Toni Morrison's Beloved 41
3 Telling the Story of Genocide in Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead 68
4 (Pro)Creating Imaginative Spaces and Other Queer Acts 103
5 andquot;From this Moment Forth, We Are Black Lesbiansandquot;: Querying Feminism and Killing the Self in Consolidated's Business of Punishment 124
6 Critical Conversations at the Boundary between Life and Death 149
Epilogue 175
Notes 183
Selected Bibliography 209
Index 227