The Sovereignty of Quiet

Price (paper): $24.95  
Price (cloth): $72.00  
Subtitle: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture
Written by Kevin Quashie
Subject: African American, American Studies, Literary Studies
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-5310-8
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-5309-2
Pages: 200 pages
Publication Date: July 2012

Praise for The Sovereignty of Quiet:

"The Sovereignty of Quiet is a profound and excellent look at quiet and its relationship with black identity, black culture, and existentialism. With impeccable scholarship, beautiful writing, and powerful arguments, Quashie makes a fabulous contribution to the field. A success!"
—Debra Walker King, author of African Americans and the Culture of Pain

Description:

African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant. In The Sovereignty of Quiet, Kevin Quashie explores quiet as a different kind of expressiveness, one which characterizes a person's desires, ambitions, hungers, vulnerabilities, and fears. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture.

The book revisits such iconic moments as Tommie Smith and John Carlos's protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and Elizabeth Alexander's reading at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. Quashie also examines such landmark texts as Gwendolyn Brooks's Maud Martha, James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, and Toni Morrison's Sula to move beyond the emphasis on resistance, and to suggest that concepts like surrender, dreaming, and waiting can remind us of the wealth of black humanity.

KEVIN QUASHIE is an associate professor of Afro-American studies at Smith College. He is the author of Black Women, Identity, and Cultural Theory: (Un)Becoming the Subject (Rutgers University Press).

Receive special offers and book notices by email. Sign up for RU READING?
Price (paper): $24.95
Price (cloth): $72.00