Toward a Theory of the Black Superaddressee

This paper argues for the usefulness of Bakhtin's concept of the superaddressee to adjudicating debates at the intersection of black literary studies and novel theory. Reframing Bakhtin's theory of a third-party addressee that stands outside and above the social order allows for a new way of thinking about the function of rhetorical address with respect to arguments advanced by Kenneth Warren and Stephen Best about the value and coherence of group identity, signifying practices, traditionalism and innovation, and historicity. Similarities and divergences with the Bakhtinian definition are examined in a series of readings that range across canonical texts in the black literary tradition, including slave narratives and abolitionist writings, with a special emphasis on the modern novel, including Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow, Toni Morrison's Beloved, and selected examples from contemporary fiction, including Vinson Cunningham's Great Expectations and Raven Leilani's Luster.