Urban fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Urban fiction is a literary genre set, as the name implies, in a city landscape; however, the genre is as much defined by the race and culture of its characters as the urban setting. The tone for urban fiction is usually dark, focusing on the underside of city life, and the characters tend to be African-American or Latino.

The genre is sometimes referred to as ghetto lit or street lit.

Contents

[edit] Characteristics of urban fiction

As a rule, urban fiction portrays African-American protagonists (often anti-heroes) coming of age and trying to survive in a hostile environment riven with violence, poverty, and racism. Profanity (all of George Carlin's seven dirty words and urban variations thereof), sex and violence are usually explicit, with the writer not shying away from or watering-down the material. In this respect, urban fiction shares some common threads with dystopian or survivalist fiction. Often statements derogatory to white people (or at least what is perceived as the dominant white culture and power structure) are made, usually by the characters. However, in the second wave of urban fiction, some variations of this model have been seen.

[edit] Genesis and historical forces behind urban fiction

Urban fiction was (and largely still is) a genre written by and for African-Americans. In his famous essay, The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Dubois talked about how a "veil" separated the African-American community from the outside world. [1] By extension, fiction written by people outside the African-American culture could not (at least with any degree of verisimilitude) depict the people, settings, and events experienced by people in that culture. Try as some might, those who grew up "outside the veil" (i.e., outside the urban culture) simply could not write fiction truly grounded in inner-city and African-American life.

[edit] The first generation of urban fiction

In the 1970s, during the culmination of the Black Power movement, a jailed black man named Robert Beck took the pen name Iceberg Slim and wrote Pimp, a dark, gritty tale of life in the inner-city underworld. While the book contained elements of the Black Power agenda, it was most notable for its unsparing depiction of street life. Iceberg Slim wrote many other novels, and attained an international following. Some of the terminology he used in his books crossed over into the lexicon of Black English. [2]. Other writers included Donald Goines [3], and notably, Claude Brown's Manchild In The Promised Land published in 1965. Also published in 1965 was Malcolm X's autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Because this non-fictional read captures the realistic nature of African-American urban life for coming of age young men, the book has consistently served as a standard for reading amongst African-American teen-aged boys.

[edit] Rap music as an urban ballad

During the 1980s and early 1990s, urban fiction in print experienced a decline. However, one could make a cogent argument that urban tales simply moved from print to music[4], as rap music exploded in popularity, with harsh, gritty stories such as The Message and Dopeman set to a driving, strident bass rhythm. Of course, for every rapper who signed a recording contract and made the airwaves, ten more amateurs plied the streets and local clubs, much like urban bards or troubadours telling urban fiction in an informal, oral manner rather than in a neat, written form. One of the most famous rappers, Tupac Shakur, is sometimes called a "ghetto prophet," and is undeniably an author of urban fiction in lyrical form. Although the genre is somewhat new to the literary world a new blood writer by the name Lamar Visarraga will be coming out with his new book in the near future. The name of this book? The Disciples Of Grease.

[edit] The new wave of urban fiction

Toward the end of the 1990s, urban fiction experienced a revival, as demand for novels authentically conveying the urban experience increased, and new business models enabled fledgling writers to more easily bring a manuscript to market. One of the first writers in this new cycle of urban fiction was the controversial Sister Souljah, who wrote Coldest Winter Ever. (1999) For good or ill, her books gained publicity based on comments she made during an interview that some interpreted as advocating the killing of white people. Teri Woods' True to the Game and Omar Tyree's Flyy Girl, were also published in 1999. Along with Souljah's Coldest Winter, the three novels are considered classics in this renaissance genre.

Other writers of urban fiction include Vikki Stringer, Shannon Holmes, Solomon Jones, Nikki Turner, and Pamela M. Johnson, the latter of whom is becoming known in urban fiction circles for bootstrapping a single novel sold from the trunk of her car into a publishing company and press.

In less than a decade, urban fiction has experienced a renaissance that boasts hundreds of titles. Some publishers include Triple Crown Publications [5], Kensington Books [6], and Dafina Books, an imprint of Kensington.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

Because this genre is very popular with urban teenagers, the following reading lists should prove to be helpful for educators and librarians.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../u/r/b/Urban_fiction.html"