Dark Matters: Representations of African American Inequality in American Literature and Culture

This thesis examines how African American female authors challenge and resist racial oppression through their texts. I argue that their creative works function as a form of political activism and protest. I explore how selected authors seek to confront and overturn systemic racism and how African American authors seek to redefine their identities through literary movements such as Afrofuturism. I examine the treatment of African Americans in American literature and explore how African American authored texts such as Claudia Rankine’s collection of poetry Citizen: an American Lyric and Evie Shockley’s short story “Separation Anxiety” critique and challenge racist ideologies and issues of race in our culture. I also examine how contemporary issues of race relate to literary issues African American authors are still working through today. For example, I explore and analyze recent cases of racist and violent acts such as the cases of Trayvon Martin and James Craig Anderson and how contemporary singer Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade responds to these same issues.