Narrative epistemologies: Envisioning a new world in post-1970 African American imaginative prose

This study explores changes in the form and function of a select group of African American imaginative prose narratives published after 1970. The authors of this select group depart from the standard narrative form of their predecessors by avoiding a chronological and linear development around a central character or characters, by using common structural discourse techniques (for example, stream of consciousness) reflecting temporal and spatial connections between characters who represent different temporal and spatial locations, and by incorporating the reader's own personal response and cultural identity into the structure of the narrative. African American writers in this select group also alter narrative function in their texts. They use their imaginative prose narratives as a way to reconnect African American identity not only with an African ontology and epistemology, but also with other cultural groups and identities encountered along the way in the context of an anthropological and archeological trope of hunting and gathering. The reconnection of these divergent identity paths creates works that help to expand the definition and understanding of African American imaginative prose narratives and that revisit the limits of black being. By revisiting the limits of black being, these writers open new imaginative and creative possibilities for exploring the epistemological and ontological specters of black life in the interstices of space and time.