Pitfalls of Prestige: Black Women and Literary Recognition (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780814215753)

From 1987, when Rita Dove won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, to 2021, when Amanda Gorman skyrocketed to celebrity status after performing during Biden's inauguration and the Super Bowl, Black women have seemingly attained secure, stable positions at the forefront of American poetry. But this prominence comes at a price. As figures like Dove and Elizabeth Alexander have become well known, receiving endorsements and gaining visible platforms from major prizes, academic institutions, and publishing houses, the underlying terms of evaluation that greet Black women's poetics often remain superficial, reflecting efforts to co-opt and contain rather than meaningfully consider new voices and styles. In Pitfalls of Prestige, Laura Elizabeth Vrana surveys how developments in American literary institutions since 1980 have shaped--and been shaped by--Black women poets. Grappling with the refulgent works of the most acclaimed contemporary figures alongside lesser-known poets, Vrana both elucidates how seeming gestures of inclusion can actually result in constraining Black women poets' works and also celebrates how these writers draw on a rich lineage and forge alternative communities to craft continually innovative modes of transgressing such limits, on the page and in life.

Author: Laura Elizabeth Vrana
ISBN-10: 0814215750
ISBN-13: 9780814215753
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/08/2024
Pages: 236
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d