We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
The Power to Undo Sin: Race, History and Literary Blackness in Rilla Askew's "Fire in Beulah."
- Authors
Hada, Kenneth
- Abstract
Rilla Askew's novel follows the tradition established by fellow Oklahoma writers Ralph Ellison ("Juneteenth") and Linda Hogan ("Mean Spirit") whose works give prominence to minority voices in the turbulent days of Indian Territory and early statehood under Jim Crowism. Askew's historical fiction demonstrates the authority of what Toni Morrison and Henry Louis Gates Jr. understand as literary blackness. Askew writes the black presence into her novel as a corrective to the often romanticized notions of white supremacy found throughout much of the history of the American southwest. Like Hogan, Askew unearths corruption concerning oil and greed, her novel culminating with the Tulsa race riot—the most costly race riot in American history. Askew's vision not only gives voice to the presence of the Other, she essentially crosses literary boundaries to appropriate and celebrate the minority presence.
- Subjects
FIRE in Beulah (Book); ASKEW, Rilla; SEGREGATION in literature; AFRICAN Americans in literature; JIM Crow laws; RACIAL identity of Black people; RACE riots; RIOTS in literature; HISTORICAL fiction
- Publication
College Literature, 2007, Vol 34, Issue 4, p166
- ISSN
0093-3139
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1353/lit.2007.0044