A press has expressed interest in publishing a proposed collection of essays tentatively entitled Imag(in)ing America: The African American Body in Literature Ed. Carol E. Henderson. This collection broadens the scope of other edited collections on the body and literature, or on the black body and literature more specifically. Other edited and single authored texts tend to focus on the body as it relates to gender and/or sexuality exclusively (black men or black women and the body; or a combination of the two), yet few collections cross-pollinate the perspectives of the black body in literature from white and black authors—placing these texts in dialogue with each other provides a fascinating tapestry of the ways in which American identity, and in some cases, global identity is accessed and assessed through the site of the black body. This collection will alter the landscape of these discussions in my view, and will provide a way to literarily discuss African American, Africanist, and American perspectives of cultural and historical identity through the site of the reconfigured body.

We already have a number of essays for this collection that explore the proposed dynamics of the body aesthetic through literature written by authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass; Margaret Mitchell and Alice Randall; Kate Chopin and Nella Larsen; George Schuyler and James Weldon Johnson. We also have a number of essays that explore contemporary imaginings of the black body from authors such as Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor.

We would like to complement these offerings with a number of essays that explore the theories and insights presented above from alternative perspectives using poetry, drama, short stories, and non-fiction narratives. If you would like to be considered for this collection, please send a 300-500 word abstract, along with a cv as a word document attachment to ceh@udel.edu with the subject byline: BODY BOOK. Or you may send these materials via land mail to:

Dr. Carol E. Henderson Belton
Associate Professor of English and Black American Studies
212 Memorial Hall
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716

The deadline for abstracts and cvs is November 1, 2006. Completed essays of 20-25pps. will be due January 31st, 2007.