What does it mean to read late-19th Century African American literature now? What critical questions does it answer, what methodological approaches does it demand, and what does it mean to ethically encounter the archive of postbellum black life and literature? We approach these questions by pairing deep readings of African American literature from the late 19th century with criticism that takes the period as its starting point. We read canonical and lesser known texts as sites from which race, freedom, aesthetics, performance, and the archive itself are being theorized, while also exploring how those very ideas might instruct us now.
