The Buck,
the Black, and the Existential Hero combines philosophy, literary theory, and
jazz studies with Africana studies to develop a theory of the black male
literary imagination. In doing so, James B. Haile III seeks to answer
fundamental aesthetic and existential questions: How does the experience of
being black and male in the modern West affect the telling of a narrative, the shape
or structure of a novel, the development of characters and plot lines, and the
nature of criticism itself?
Haile argues
that, since black male identity is largely fluid and open to interpretation,
reinterpretation, and misinterpretation, the literature of black men has
developed flexibility and improvisation, which he terms the “jazz of life.”
Reading this literature requires the same kind of flexibility and improvisation
to understand what is being said and why, as well as what is not being said and
why. The book attempts to offer this new reading experience by placing texts by
well-known authors, such as Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, and Colson Whitehead,
in conversation with texts by less well-known figures who are largely
forgotten, in particular, Cecil Brown. Doing so challenges the reader to visit
and revisit these novels with a new perspective on the social, political,
historical, and psychic realities of black men.
“James B. Haile III has fashioned a penetrating lens through
which to examine the African American male subject in literature, as well as
how this subject is conventionally discussed within literary criticism and
philosophy . . . This will be an important work.”
-Anthony Stewart, author of George Orwell, Doubleness, and the Value of Decency
James B. Haile III is an assistant professor of philosophy at
the University of Rhode Island
The Buck, the Black, and the Existential Hero: Refiguring The
Black Male Literary Canon, 1850 to Present by James B. Haile III
Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 978-0-8191-4166-7, 214 pages
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