The African American Literary Canon:
Rationale and Function, Pros and Cons

In ways not unlike that of the mainstream literary canon, the African American literary canon has become a force to be reckoned with in African American literary production and reception. While this canon is noteworthy for the individuals and works it includes, it is equally problematic for the individuals and works left out of it. As critics, we should remain attuned to how this canon operates in order to understand how the privileging of voices occurs as well as our response(s) to that privileging.

This panel seeks to address canonicity as it relates to the production and reception of literature by African Americans. Papers and presentations might examine (the list is suggestive, not exhaustive):

*Which works and authors constitute the African American literary canon and why?

*What is the decision-making process insofar as the formation of the African American literary canon? Who decides inclusion and exclusion and how permanent is that decision? What are the standards of the canon and who’s (been) in charge of setting and upholding them?

*How are the literary politics at play in the mainstream literary canon reflected in the African American literary canon? Where are the spaces of difference?

*While many might have familiarity with, for instance, the Pulitzer Prize-winning _The Known World_, what about those “unknown worlds” that have been written about; what do they add to an understanding of African American phenomenology and what is lost by virtue of their remaining unknown?

*Was DuBois’s notion of the “Talented Tenth” a precursor to the African American literary canon or was it adhering to a prescribed/proscribed dictate? Was the “Talented Tenth” a codephrase for “the ten best qualified individuals”?

*How do issues of bi-raciality and multi-raciality inflect/affect the African American literary canon?

*How are gender, class, disability, and/or sexual orientation negotiated and represented – or not – in the African American literary canon?

Send abstracts, full-length papers, ideas and/or queries by 31 March 2006 to (e-submissions preferred):

Chris Bell
PhD Student
Nottingham Trent University
College of Communication, Culture and Education
Clifton Campus, Clifton Lane
Nottingham
NG11 8NS
United Kingdom
tooferbell@yahoo.com

Note: In order to present at the MMLA Convention, participants must remit organization membership and conference dues to the organization by June 1, 2005. Full details about this painless process are available at the MMLA website: www.uiowa.edu/~mmla.