Date of Award
Spring 2026
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
English Language and Literatures
First Advisor
Seulghee Lee
Abstract
This project argues that twentieth century Black writers, namely Ralph Ellison, Ann Petry, and Toni Morrison, wrestle with and embrace the tendency for Black life to elude political and literary representation. Black life, an ontological mode, continues to bust loose from racial sociology, which often pathologizes Black folks. Moreover, Black thought has a pattern of wrestling with Black ontology, and it’s when Black life is bustin’ loose from literary forms, sociological limitations, and categorization that we get some of the most precious literary moments and intellectual insights. This project analyzes the works of Ralph Ellison, who remains an important figure for questions surrounding Black experiences, literary aesthetic value, and Black intellectual debates. The project also analyzes Ann Petry’s The Street in order to suggest that even a novel that treats Black suffering gets loose from the pathologies of racial sociology and that Black intellectuals constitute common Black folks as opposed to only academics. The final literary figure, Toni Morrison, through her novel Sula, teaches us that cherishing the surplus of Black beauty is a task that requires deep care. This project also seeks to trace some of the philosophical traditions that emphasize Black ontology. Therefore, the study engages with well-known Black thinkers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Anna Julia Cooper alongside cultural theorists like Christina Sharpe, Saidiya Hartman, and Fred Moten. The critical question this project seeks to address is what will serve as an alternative to the framework of the Negro Question, which limits the scope of Black literature and intellectual efforts to merely representation.
Rights
© 2026, Walter Lee Quiller, III
Recommended Citation
Quiller, W. L.(2026). “I Feel Like Bustin’ Loose:” The Ontological Conditions of Black American Literature and the Escape From Racial Sociology. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8851