Writing the absent potential: Drama, performance, and the canon of African-American literature

When one reviews anthologies of African-American literature and criticism, it would seem as though drama is not a species of literature, for seldom is it included. The critical tradition within African American literature locates “authentic” cultural expression on the terrain of the folk, but the folk have articulated their presence most brilliantly in those realms with which literature is uncomfortable, namely in arenas centered in performance. The chapter aims to engage one of the fundamental challenges constituted by the folk insistence upon the importance of performance and the literary inheritance of a written, hence seemingly stable text. It argues that in confronting this challenge, one must write the absent potential into criticism; that is, in addition to analysis of the written text, one must offer informed accounts of the latent intertexts likely to be produced in performance, increasing and complicating meaning. In dancing, the performers enact a history that has been preserved and taught to younger generations kinesthetically.