Spirit in the Dark

A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics

Josef Sorett

Offers a religious history of texts, writers and intellectuals typically taken to be secular
Reveals a religious impulse at the center of the African American literary imagination
Provides an introduction to African American religion and literature

Spirit in the Dark

A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics

Josef Sorett

Description

Many of the most important black intellectual movements of the second half of the twentieth century were perceived as secular, if not profane. When religion has figured into scholarly accounts of these moments, it has almost always appeared as tangential or inconsequential. In Spirit in the Dark, Josef Sorett upends this narrative by exploring the ways in which religion continued to animate and organize African American literary visions throughout the years between the New Negro Renaissance of the 1920s and the Black Arts movement of the 1960s.

Sorett unveils the contours of a literary history that remained preoccupied with religion even as it was typically understood, by authors, readers and critics alike, to be secular. In doing so, he reveals how religion, especially Christianity, remained pivotal to the very ideas and aspirations of African American literature across much of the twentieth century. More specifically, Sorett shows that religion and spirituality are key categories for identifying what is (or is not) perceived to constitute or contribute to a black culture. By examining figures and movements that have typically been cast as "secular," he offers theoretical insights that blur the boundaries of the "sacred" in scholarship on African American religion and culture. Ultimately, Spirit in the Dark reveals religion to be an essential ingredient, albeit one that was always questioned and contested, to the forging of an African American literary tradition.

Spirit in the Dark

A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics

Josef Sorett

Prologue and Acknowledgements
Introduction: Church, Spirit, and the History of Racial Aesthetics
1. The Church and the Negro Spirit
2. Ancestral Spirits
3. Catholic Spirits
4. As the Spirit Moves
5. An International Spirit
6. That Spirit is Black
7. Contrary Spirits
Epilogue: You Can't Keep a Good Church Down!
Notes
Index

Spirit in the Dark

A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics

Josef Sorett

Author Information

Josef Sorett, Assistant Professor of Religion and African-American Studies and Director of the Center for African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice, Columbia University

Josef Sorett is Assistant Professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Columbia University, where he is also directs the Center for African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice.

Spirit in the Dark

A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics

Josef Sorett

Reviews and Awards

"Perhaps the most important and powerful statement to date concerning religion and literature in the African American tradition. Indeed, at the risk of grandiosity, I think Sorett's may be one of the most important recent works of African American literary criticism and simultaneously one of the most significant works in the field of religion and literature" - The Cresset

"Given Sorett's interdisciplinary approach, his weaving together of religious and literary studies in order to make visible the influence (overflow) of the spirit in both sacred and secular cultural forms, Spirit in the Dark will be useful for both scholars of African American religion and African American literature, in particular those focused on Black Modernism. Sorett's text challenges us to move beyond singular and secularizing narratives about this literary period in order to see the full complexity of black cultural forms and the rich contexts in which they were produced." - Tisha Brooks, Papers on Language and Literature

"Spirit in the Dark is a richly textured and intellectually sophisticated text that expands on the range and the nature of Black religio-cultural and theological discourse in the US... Sorett deserves all the plaudits he has received for creating such an ambitious and highly intelligent and perceptive piece of work that rewards careful attention and scholarly engagement." - Anthony G. Reddie (The Methodist Church and University of South Africa)