This book looks at the role fictional and actual material things play in black-American literature and culture, exploring the ethical implications of black thinghood on how African Americans empathize with, organize, and deploy objects. Visiting the role of race in studying thing theory, it considers American literature, art, slavery, and the process of simultaneously racializing and moralizing both material objects and desire. It argues that significance placed on objects like heirlooms, inventions, and packed suitcases constitutes an unexamined branch of black subjectivity, perseverance, and innovation, challenging the fields of object-oriented ontology, thing theory, and new materialism.

Sandy Alexandre is Associate Professor of Literature at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA