Abstract
The arrival of new media often generates a gap between accepted or “high” texts and those new texts regarded with suspicion or simply labeled “low.” The popular drama in Shakespeare's time was regarded as low and gradually achieved high status. Following a similar trajectory, the novel began as a low form and was gradually elevated to the level of literary art. . .But the rise of so many new media, recently, has threatened to leave us with a deep gap between what is thought of as “high” art or literature on the one hand, and “mass” or “popular” culture on the other. - Robert Scholes, The Crafty Reader Popular culture has always been where black people theorize blackness in America. It has always constituted the sphere where black people produce narratives of pleasure, oppression, resistance, survival, and heroic performances. The kinds of stories told in popular culture may be characterized as black feminist (“Think” and “Respect” by Aretha Franklin and “Ladies First” by Queen Latifah), theses on black unemployment (“Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding), interpretation of black rights (“Pay Back” by James Brown), or black funk pleasure (“Little Red Corvette” by Prince). - Manthia Diawara, “A Symposium on Popular Culture and Political Correctness” Girlfriend fiction, Urban Romance, Black Erotica, Speculative Fiction, or Detective Fiction, all these terms can be used to describe the subgenres of popular fiction written by African American women writers in the twenty-first century. Though the last fifteen years has seen the publication of hundreds of titles, from major publishing houses and vanity presses, the existence of what is now understood as African American popular fiction dates back many decades and points to the existence of distribution networks not found in mainstream culture.
Published Version
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