Dissertation
Flying African Americans: the trope of Black flight in 20th century literature
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Autumn 2021
DOI: 10.17077/etd.006284
Abstract
The myth of the flying African recounts how an enslaved African breaks the shackles of slavery, leaps into the air, and flies back to Africa. The origin of the myth is difficult to trace, but the main elements of the story are often the same: after a particularly dehumanizing event linked to labor or abuse from a master/overseer, the enslaved African recites magic words, rises into the sky and returns to Africa by flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Naturally, scholars read this flight as representative of the desire to move away from a demeaning, racist American society and towards a reestablished connection with the enslaved African’s indigenous roots. This interpretation is fitting for flight narratives set before the mid-nineteenth century, but even after plantation slavery met its formal end, the Black body flying through the air remained a powerful image in the Black imagination.
This project examines the trope of embodied Black flight as it appears in twentieth century literature, where the myth of the flying African has been transformed into the trope of the flying African American. Relying on American social and literary history throughout the twentieth century and the role—and evolution—of folklore within the Black American literary tradition, my dissertation explores how Black writers have revised and renegotiated the trope of embodied flight to address forms of unfreedom in each author’s unique historical moment and to represent their male protagonist’s ascent to maturity against systems that attempt to delimit acceptable forms of Black masculinity. Each instantiation of flight explored here is unique in its presentation, but collectively these examples all offer a key difference from the classic flying African myth: a reorientation of the axis of flight from horizontal escape to vertical ascension. Put another way, none of the characters in these works is interested in achieving flight as a means to escape the United States, which was the primary goal of the flying African narrative. Instead, they strive to rise above the racist legacies of the Plantation that survive in the author’s contemporary period, to live as fully free Black Americans despite the nation’s deep entanglement with anti-Black racism.
The writers I explore in this project use the motif in two related ways. First, they remind readers that America’s history is delineated by the intersections of regional U.S. geographies and ethnic histories, and that these intersections can speak against white hegemonic notions of national identity. Second, they connect these national cultural narratives to the struggles of their male protagonists, who must react against these narratives and embrace a more expansive construction of Black masculinity in order to reach personal ascension. The dissertation’s focus on flight and manhood may seem at first to substantiate the masculinist orientation of the flight motif, but by reading these texts against historical accounts of the flying African myth, I will illuminate how they offer a feminist revision of the narrative by casting women in the pivotal role of the elder figure and highlighting the constricting nature of gender normativity. While some of the texts here challenge the boundaries of realistic fiction, the lessons they have to share speak directly to the real conditions of Black life in America. This project aims to elucidate how these writers have relied on the literary trope of embodied flight to rewrite hegemonic narratives of race, sexuality, and national belonging encoded in state power and cultural institutions, showing readers the possibility for a better, freer world.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Flying African Americans: the trope of Black flight in 20th century literature
- Creators
- Enrico Bruno
- Contributors
- Lena Hill (Advisor)Michael Hill (Advisor)Bluford Adams (Committee Member)Harry Stecopoulos (Committee Member)Doris Witt (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- English
- Date degree season
- Autumn 2021
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.006284
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- viii, 205 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2021 Enrico Bruno
- Language
- English
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-205).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
The myth of the flying African—who breaks the shackles of slavery, leaps into the air, and flies back to Africa—is a foundational story in the Black imagination and the African American literary tradition. Scholars read flight as movement away from a degrading, racist American society and towards a reestablished connection with the enslaved African’s indigenous roots. This interpretation is fitting for mid-nineteenth century narratives, but writers throughout the twentieth century have incorporated the image of Black flight in their own contemporary settings, demanding a reframing of the myth’s—and the sky’s—promises.
Relying on American social and literary history throughout the twentieth century and the role—and evolution—of folklore within the Black American literary tradition, my dissertation explores how Black writers have revised and renegotiated the trope of embodied flight to address forms of unfreedom in each author’s unique historical moment, focusing specifically on systems that attempt to delimit acceptable forms of Black masculinity. The texts examined here offer a feminist revision of the trope that calls for a more expansive construction of Black masculinity, while simultaneously redefining flight from a means of escape from the United States to a method of rising above the racist legacies of the Plantation. Ultimately, this project elucidates how these writers rely on the trope of embodied flight to rewrite hegemonic narratives of race, sexuality, and national belonging encoded in state power and cultural institutions, showing readers the possibility for a better, freer world.
- Academic Unit
- English
- Record Identifier
- 9984210842602771
Metrics
35 File views/ downloads
1455 Record Views