[Introduction to] Platitudes: & the New Black Aesthetic

Authors

Trey Ellis
Bertram D. Ashe, University of RichmondFollow

Files

Description

A playful, irreverent look at the African-American literary community.

Trey Ellis's uproariously funny debut novel Platitudes, first published in 1988, takes on conflicts within the African American literary community. Dewayne Wellington, a failing black experimental novelist, and Isshee Ayam, a radical feminist author, collaborate on Dewayne's latest sexist comedy. Alternately telling the story about the coming of age of Earle and Dorothy - two black middle-class teenagers, sex-starved in New York City - the battling writers sneak ever, and dangerously, closer to reconciling their literary disputes.

This edition of Platitudes also includes "The New Black Aesthetic," a groundbreaking essay by Ellis that appeared in the journal Callaloo.

ISBN

9781555535865

Publication Date

2003

Publisher

Northeastern University Press

City

Boston

Keywords

African American literature, African American fiction, satire, African-American cultural theory

School

School of Arts and Sciences

Department

English

Comments

Read the foreword to the book by Dr. Bertram Ashe by clicking the Download button above.

Recommended Citation

Ashe, Bertram D. "Foreword." Foreword to Platitudes: & the New Black Aesthetic, by Trey Ellis, vii-xxvi. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003.