Literary Fiction as Art and Activism: Colson Whitehead, Post-blackness, and the Trumpian Novel

Abstract

How can we hear the voice of American civil society in works of art? Civil society relies on solidarity - but when artistic expression becomes overly bound to solidarity's demands, it may risk losing aesthetic complexity and collapsing into activist moralizing. How does contemporary American literary fiction navigate this tension? This article explores the question by combining a cultural sociological perspective on civil society with a close reading of Colson Whitehead’s work and his trajectory as a writer. I trace two transformations - of both the writer and his literary aesthetic - situating them in the broader social and political context, particularly the rise and fall of the symbolism of Post-blackness. Through an interpretive analysis of The Intuitionist, The Underground Railroad, and The Nickel Boys, I show how Whitehead’s increasing moral engagement paradoxically silences the very voice of civil society he seeks to amplify. This aesthetic shift reflects wider developments in the contemporary relationship between art and activism: as the public court of opinion falters - most visibly during Trump-era politics - art is increasingly compelled to abandon disinterestedness and assume a direct, urgent civil voice.