A Case of Mis-Taken Identity

The detective story, staple of Western popular culture, has undergone a transformation in recent African American fiction. In the work of Ishmael Reed, Toni Morrison, and Ralph Ellison, among others, a pattern of detection emerges which has its roots in African mythology and aesthetics. The traditionally marginal figure of the victim here takes center stage, and the investigation focuses not on -whodunit?- but on how to undo it: how to invalidate the victimization by resurrecting the victim as a fully autonomous, de-marginalized figure."