The much-anticipated American Fiction comes to theatres this month. As a long-time scholar of Percival Everett, the author whose 2001 novel, Erasure, was adapted for this critically praised film I am curious how the main themes of the book will be explored.
Directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright, the film presents an opportunity to talk about race, power and white supremacy within intellectual and cultural spaces, including higher education. Specifically, what version of Blackness is acceptable or saleable within American culture?
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, the protagonist of American Fiction, is a novelist and an English professor. He struggles with the power that determines which versions of Blackness “count” and who makes these determinations.
