African American Masculinities in Ann Petry's Works

Abstract

The book demonstrates an important addition to the currently developing criticism on Ann Petry’s works by enriching the interpretation of her oeuvre through a complex, intersectional reading, contributing to the global reception of this American author. With his interpretation, Hogar Najm Abdullah has successfully shown that through a black woman author’s perspective, Petry’s African American male characters can escape essentialist categorization(s) and build fluid identities; what is more, through an intersectional reading the characters also display a considerable potential in raising awareness about the pitfalls of categorical thinking. Petry’s legacy, as the author proved with his original contribution, lies thus in the progressive aesthetics represented by the ingenious identity-capacity of her complex black male characters, a strategy with which Petry successfully transgresses the confinement of the protest genre category.