cfp.english.upenn.edu

The Harlem Renaissance tried to fill socially-constructed absences in African-Americans’ group identity (such as humanity, art, masculinity, morality) by creating a respectable black middle class. Bourgeois imperatives complicated middle class queer existence by enforcing heteronormativity, in contrast to working class Harlem's more open relationship to sexual expression. This panel explores representations, direct or ambivalent, of African-American lesbian desire and resistance in the arts, music, and literature of the Harlem Renaissance and the contemporary queer renaissance.

Please send 300-500 word abstracts to Phillip Zapkin, pzapkin@uvm.edu by 15 Sept. 2010. Please include your name, affiliation, e-mail address, and any A/V requirements.