| The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the first generation of formal participation by African Americans in the US's international diplomatic program. Given the heightened attentiveness to language-use that is common to the fields of diplomacy and literary writing, it should come as no surprise that several black diplomats tried their hand at literature while several black writers entered into the field of diplomacy.;Reading literature produced by the vibrant community of black writer-diplomats during the first generation of black involvement with the US State Department, this dissertation offers a critical rethinking of black internationalism's relation to artistic innovation, US imperialism, and the formation of black transnational consciousnesses. The study draws upon the rich literary and diplomatic dossiers of prominent figures such as Frederick Douglass, James Weldon Johnson, and Angelina Weld Grimke. Concomitantly, the project recontextualizes this material by recovering the literary works of lesser-known African American writers including Ida Gibbs Hunt, Henry Francis Downing, and John Stephens Durham. Informed by postnationalist American Studies, black diasporan studies, and postcolonial theory, the project sheds light on a group of African American writers who sought the full rights of US and world citizenship by working at the intersection of racial, international, and literary representation.;In bringing focus to the work of these black writer-diplomats within a state-oriented and masculinst global network, the dissertation explores the ways in which African America's artistic ambassadors contributed in formative ways to discussions surrounding enduring African American representational concerns. These concerns include the emergence of race representatives within the United States, the stakes of the Booker T. Washington-W. E. B. Du Bois debate, the ethics of Africa's representation by African Americans, the limits of preserving and accessing African American history, and the role of African America within the black diaspora. |
