Our Living Manhood by Rolland Murray

Our Living Manhood by Rolland Murray

When Eldridge Cleaver wrote in 1965 that black men "shall have our manhood or the earth will be leveled by our attempt to gain it," he voiced a central strain of Black Power movement rhetoric. In print, as well as on stage and screen, Black Power advocates equated masculinity with their political radicalism and potency. While many observers have criticized the misogyny in this preoccupation, few have noted the challenges to it within the period in the works of authors such as James Baldwin, John Edgar Wideman, Clarence Major, and John Oliver Killens. These and other writers tested the link between masculinity and radical politics. By recovering their voices, Rolland Murray demonstrates that the movement's gender ideals were questioned more fully than scholars have acknowledged. He also examines how the Black Power era's contentious gender politics continue to play a role in contemporary African American culture and scholarship. Murray analyzes the ways in which notions of masculinity were interwoven with essential movement philosophies regarding revolutionary violence, charismatic leadership, radical rhetoric, and black sexuality. Striving to forge a more nuanced account of how masculinist discourse contributed to the movement's overall agenda, he frames masculinity both as a linchpin of the seductive politics of Black Power and as a focal point of dissent by black male authors.

"Clearly written and persuasively argued, Our Living Manhood makes a notable contribution to the long-standing critique of male supremacy in Black Nationalism by helping to complicate that critique, and demonstrates the ongoing importance of gender/sexuality studies for understanding African American literature and culture" * Marlon Ross, University of Virginia *

Rolland Murray is Associate Professor of English at Brown University. His work has appeared in such journals as Callaloo and the Yale Journal of Criticism.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780812239720
ISBN 10	0812239725
Title	Our Living Manhood
Author	Rolland Murray
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	University of Pennsylvania Press
Year published	2007-01-05
Number of pages	160
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.