Dispatches from the Drug Wars: Ishmael Reed, Oscar Zeta Acosta, and the Viet Cong of America

This chapter establishes the definition of comic rage and traces the history of humor and militancy in African American literature and history. It distinguishes between comic rage and satire, culminating in an examination of George Schuyler’s Black No More. It details how comic rage acts as an abjection (from Julia Kristeva) that breaks down simplistic ideas about race and representations that appear in literature and popular culture. While identifying Richard Pryor as the most recognizable employer of comic rage, this chapter also points to figures like Sutton Griggs, Ishmael Reed, and Malcolm X; who embody the multiple combinations of anger and comedy that appear in the chapters of the book. It outlines the contents of the chapters that trace the development of comic rage in relation to the various political and literary moments in American and African American life.

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Ishmael Reed and the New Black Aesthetic Critics

10.1007/978-1-349-19166-6 ◽

1988 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Reginald Martin

Keyword(s):

Black Aesthetic ◽

Ishmael Reed

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Norman Maclean by Ron McFarland, and: Peggy Pond Church by Shelley Armitage, and: William Allen White by Diane Dufva Quantic, and: Ishmael Reed by Jay Boyer, and: Ann Zwinger by Peter Wild

Western American Literature ◽

10.1353/wal.1994.0061 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 69-71

Author(s):

Robert L. Gale

Keyword(s):

Ishmael Reed

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Ishmael Reed: Whose Radio Broke Down?

Negro American Literature Forum ◽

10.2307/3041201 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 125 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Madge Ambler

Keyword(s):

Ishmael Reed

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The Satire of Black Post-Blackness

10.5406/illinois/9780252041006.003.0006 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Margo Natalie Crawford

Keyword(s):

21St Century ◽

Black Arts Movement ◽

Ishmael Reed ◽

Charles Johnson ◽

Amiri Baraka ◽

Black Arts ◽

Cultural Productions ◽

Editorial Cartoons ◽

Paul Beatty

The fifth chapter argues that feeling “black post-black” is a disorienting situation that lends itself to satire. Crawford analyzes the ways in which satire has begun to define 21st century African American cultural productions as both blackness and whiteness are satirized. The satire of the Black Arts Movement is shown to be much more invested in satirizing whiteness as opposed to the 21st century post-black tendency to foreground the satirizing of blackness. In addition to the analysis of novels, drama, and poetry, this chapter also uncovers the role of satire in editorial cartoons included in Black World, one of the key journals of the Black Arts Movement. This chapter foregrounds the satire of Charles Johnson, Carlene Hatcher Polite, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Percival Everett, Paul Beatty, Mat Johnson, and others.

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