Characterization and Related Representational Issues in the African-American Novel

This essay gives a brief account of the major representational issues involved in characterization in the African American novel from its early years of appearance in the pre-Civil War era until the last decades of the twentieth century. It specifically focuses on the correlation between the gradual progress in the African American sense of selfhood and the progressive changes in the types of characters black novelists create in each era. As black people sense of selfhood is formed and strengthened in their acts of struggle and resistance against white peopleʹs dehumanizing treatment, their representations in different cultural products, including novels, reflect this progressive change minutely and fortify it.