Backdrops No More: Alternative Visions of Black Girlhood in Afrofuturistic Literature
updated:
Tuesday, August 20, 2019 - 9:22am
College Language Association (CLA)
deadline for submissions:
Sunday, September 8, 2019
In 1970, Toni Morrison published The Bluest Eye, which prominently features black female children and adolescents, who she considered to be the “most vulnerable, most undescribed, not taken seriously" characters in literature. Since that time, many authors have paid increased attention to black girls in their works; yet, a great deal of these children and adolescents still commonly exist as backstory or props for more centralized adult characters. However, as Afrofuturism offers broadened representations of and opportunities for African Americans in literature, the genre can also extend fundamental freedoms and alternative realities to black girl characters.