The Black God Trope and Rhetorical Resistance

Armondo R. Collins is assistant professor of African American literature, thought, and cultural studies at California Polytechnic.

Table of Contents Acknowledgments Chapter 1: The Black God Trope and Enthymematic Blackness Chapter 2: Proto-Black Nationalism: Early Black Church Lore as Rhetorical Performance and Resistance Chapter 3: A Message to the Blackman in America: Elijah Muhamad's Influential Religious Rhetoric Chapter 4: Clarence 13x's Black God Ethos and the Rhetorical Challenge of the Five Percent Chapter 5: The Black God Trope in the Novel: A Message From the Black Woman in America Chapter 6: Alice Walker's Womanist Black God Trope in The Color Purple Chapter 7: The Black God Trope as Rhetorical Pedagogy Bibliography About the Author

"The Black God Trope is the apogee of rhetorical examinations regarding Black nationalism and religion, particularly how the divine is used as ethos, authority, and resistance. Collins incisively synthesizes centuries of Black rhetorical tradition in the United States - from early orators in the pulpit and at the lyceum to contemporary literary geniuses - as he concomitantly analyzes the nuances of such texts. This volume demonstrates not just the power of the divine as a rhetorical trope for resistance, but it also centers its dynamism as an epistemology for living - for community, for agency, for survival. In the same way liberation theologists have contributed to a deeper, more reflexive understanding of religion, so too does Collins provide a vigorous and fresh mapping of Black nationalism for rhetorical studies." -- Jason Edward Black, University of North Carolina at Charlotte