The Post–Civil Rights Era and the Rise of Contemporary Novels of Slavery

This chapter discusses the rise of contemporary novels of slavery, paying particular attention to the role of Black women writers. Although Black men wrote slave narratives, too, the works produced by Black women reflect a kind of Black speculative fiction largely cresting during the mid- to late 1990s that emphasizes the persistence and importance of Black agency, especially Black women’s agency. Moving beyond the constraints of realistic fiction, the Black speculative fiction of these Black women writers casts Black characters as actors, not just subjects, and creates literary space to address concerns related to an allegedly postracial society.