Reimagining the Middle Passage: Black Resistance in Literature, Television, and Song
Series Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
CONTENTS
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION: Death and Rebirth in the
Middle Passage
SOCIAL DEATH AND THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
RESISTANCE IN THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
OVERVIEW
PART I: IN THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
CHAPTER 1: Understanding the Middle Passage
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
WATER AND THE SPIRIT
RELIVING THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
REVISITING THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
CHAPTER 2: Alex Haley’s Roots of Resistance
KUNTA IS BORN
KUNTA’S MIDDLE PASSAGE
KUNTA KINTE MEETS TOBY
ROOTS ON-SCREEN: TAKE ONE
ROOTS ON-SCREEN: TAKE TWO #KUNTASKIN
CHAPTER 3: Middle Passage Legacies in Charles Johnson and HBO’s Treme
NEW ORLEANS: A MIDDLE PASSAGE
JOHNSON’S MIDDLE PASSAGE
NEW ORLEANS IN MOTION
CHAPTER 4: Calling Marie Laveau
PART II:
LEGACIES OF THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
CHAPTER 5: Deadly Waters, Southern Blues, and Richard Wright
BLACK EXPERIENCES IN THE 1927 MISSISSIPPI FLOODS
FLOODING BRINGS THE SOUTHERN BLUES
MANN’S BLUES IN “DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE”
CHAPTER 6: Katrina Sings the Blues in Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones
HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
JESMYN WARD’S HURRICANE KATRINA
CHAPTER 7: Telling of Return and Rebirth in Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow
WALKING ON WATER IN PRAISESONG
CONCLUSION: Acts of Redemption through Forgiveness: Remembering Charleston in the Post–Middle Passage Era
WORKS CITED
INDEX
BLACK PERFORMANCE AND CULTURAL CRITICISM: VALERIE LEE AND E. PATRICK JOHNSON, SERIES EDITORS