Black Horror and Dystopia

Race and American Culture

"African American Literature" often makes us think about inspiring novelists like Toni Morrison or iconic leaders like Frederick Douglass. But Black writers have also contributed to many popular genres of fiction, such as detective stories, science fiction, and romance. This event will discuss Black horror, which has been thriving thanks in large part to Jordan Peele's movies: Get Out, Us, and Nope.​ We'll talk about why horror might be an appealing genre for writers looking to interrogate racism and violence in America. Then we'll turn to our reading: "Zimmer Land" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (named one of the "5 writers under 35" to watch by the National Book Foundation in 2018). This story isn't your typical vampire or werewolf tale: it involves a theme park. But it's a theme park that will make your skin crawl. Our discussion will dive into just what makes "horror" so unsettling and how the boundaries of this genre might be changing.

This program is the seventeenth in our ongoing "Race and American Culture" series. To access the story we will use for the discussion, click here or visit any branch for a physical copy.

About Dr. Ian Afflerbach

Dr. Ian Afflerbach is an Associate Professor of American Literature at the University of North Georgia, where he teaches courses in African-American literature, modern American fiction, and the history of ideas. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and has lived in Montreal, Vermont, North Carolina, and Germany. His first book, Making Liberalism New, was published in 2021, and he's currently working on a second, Sellouts! The Story of an American Insult, which examines the history of "selling out" in American culture.

Event image credit: peeterv from Getty Images Signature via Canva.com

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