Abstract
Gates' literary theory is a hybridity of anti-essentialism and essentialism, which shows in three aspects. First, he maintains a non-essentialist concept of race, to speak for the black people with an identity based on African origin. Second, his key criterion for black literature is the form of text and the author' DNA embedded in the text with unidentified author's racial identity. The form creates formal lines of continuity between the texts which constitute the shared text of blackness. As not all novels have formal connection with other Black texts, Gates has to find their authors' identity to prove their black identity. Third, Gates' theory is the product of the Eurocentric bias that theory is the province of the Western tradition, something alien to the black. In order to refute the bias, Gates proved that the black people have their own literary theory tradition, and the black civilization is the source of the whole Western civilization. Gates' theory is grounded on poststructuralism and anti-essentialism, but the theoretical context of black literary theory requires black critics to find the artistic essence and structure of their literature, so Gates goes back to structuralism and essentialism.
First Page
203
Last Page
210
Recommended Citation
He, Yanli. 2013. "The Essentialist and Anti-Essentialist Features in Gates' Literary Theory." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 33, (4): pp.203-210. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol33/iss4/20
