Black South Joy
Society for the Study of Southern Literature MLA 2024 Call for Papers
Given the presidential theme Celebration: Joy and Sorrow, this panel will explore the topic of “Black South Joy.”
So much of the popular discourse about the South, and about the experience of Blackness in the South particularly, revolves around narratives of white supremacist violence. As scholars of southern literature, we spend much of our time encountering Saidiya Hartman’s “scenes of subjection” in the works of both white and Black authors alike. And yet, even in the darkest moments, Black folks in the South have created rituals of celebration, not only as acts of resistance, but as reflections of the simple fact of their humanity.