Overview

This book offers a comprehensive critical analysis of Colson Whitehead’s fiction, positioning him as a key figure in both African American literature and the global “turn to genre”. It explores how Whitehead employs conventions from popular genres—such as detective, zombie and caper stories—not merely for entertainment, but as tools for ideological critique and narrative innovation. Central to the study is the concept of “narratives of unveiling”, in which information is revealed retrospectively, disrupting linear storytelling and reshaping ethical perspectives. These structures allow Whitehead to expose the systemic roots of racism and ideological conflict embedded in American society. The book situates his work within broader debates about canon formation, Afropessimist and postsoul aesthetics, and the politics of form. Through close readings of Whitehead’s novels, it demonstrates how Whitehead challenges racial myths and signifies genre expectations, offering narratives that performatively enact cultural critique.

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9781041001423

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Paula Martín-Salván is Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Córdoba, Spain. She has published monographs on Don DeLillo and Graham Greene, and has co-edited several collections of essays, including Community in Twentieth Century Fiction (2013), New Perspectives on Community and the Modernist Subject (2017) and The Politics of Transparency in Modern American Fiction: Fear, Secrecy and Exposure (2024). Her research focuses mainly on contemporary American literature, with a strong background in literary and critical theory, particularly in the fields of trauma studies, communitarian theory, secrecy studies, narratology and deconstruction. She currently leads a research project entitled “The Poetics and Politics of Transparency in Contemporary Literature in English” funded by the Spanish government, implemented by a research team from the Universities of Córdoba and Granada.

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