'American Fiction' and the 'Just Literature' Problem
Briefly

"Why are these books here?" asks Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, the writer protagonist of the film American Fiction, as he points to four novels stacked neatly on the shelf of a chain bookstore.
"That's me, Ellison. He is me, and he and I are Black," the writer fumes. "These books have nothing to do with African American studies. They're just literature."
This latter component is what distinguishes the film from its novelistic predecessor: Whereas Erasure has its sights set on political correctness (a very early-2000s bugaboo), American Fiction is largely about politics.
Read at The Atlantic
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