62 pages • 2 hours read
Percival EverettErasure
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Percival Everett and the Experimental Novel
Percival Everett was born in Fort Gordon, Georgia, in 1956. He was raised in Columbia, South Carolina, where his father worked as a dentist. Everett graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Miami in 1977. He studied a range of subjects that included biochemistry, mathematical logic, and the relationship between philosophy and science. His choice of subjects speaks to his wide-ranging interests and his attempt to connect seemingly disparate topics; his writing reflects this, as well. Everett obtained an M.A. in Creative Writing from Brown University in 1982. He published his first novel, Suder, in 1983, and has since written over 30 books, including novels, short story collections, and children’s books. Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and has won many prizes for his writing.
Everett is renowned for his experimental approach to storytelling. His works often explore the metafictional aspects of literature, including centering the role of the author within a work and drawing attention to the work’s artifice. He uses both of these techniques in Erasure—its novel within a novel structure allows him to explore themes of authenticity and identity. His work also explores the ability of language to convey meaning and experiments with genre boundaries. Underpinning his writing is a profound cultural and social criticism that explores philosophical questions around language and art, as well as racism and inequality in America. Everett is interested in Greek mythology, the American West, and crime stories, and he experiments with these and other literary genres, constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of literary fiction. His work also closely observes human relationships, portraying them with satirical humor. Everett’s body of work is intellectually stimulating and complex, delving into questions such as the nature of authorship and the role of literature in society.
Critical Context: Percival Everett’s Criticism of the Publishing Industry
Percival Everett often experiments in his writing with the boundaries of genre, exploring a wide range of literary forms and styles while emphasizing his work’s metafictional aspects. In Erasure, Everett uses the metafictional element to criticize racial discrimination in the publishing industry and the commodification of Black narratives. The novel shows that the growth of corporate publishers and the domination of white employers and employees inhibits progress and diversity in the literary marketplace, leading to the treatment of books as “products” that fit into the mainstream and are only valued for being marketable. Everett’s book is a response to this phenomenon. It explores the authenticity of Black voices in American literature and examines literature’s relationship with popular culture.
Like other realms of popular culture, such as television and film, the publishing industry has often sought specific kinds of Black stories and narratives; these are often informed by racial and gender stereotypes. Hutchinson and Young note that “African American textuality” has been “haunted by the commodification of blackness and by forms of racial surveillance” because the historical rise of Black expression is “connected with the rise, and the struggles over control, of American print culture” (Hutchinson, George, and John K. Young. Publishing Blackness: Textual Constructions of Race Since 1850. The University of Michigan Press, 2013). The literary industry often favors stories that center on Black suffering and pain, since these types of stories are usually marketing successes. Black authors with more expansive and diverse stories are marginalized. Their work is often treated as being less important, and publishers are reluctant to invest time and resources to make their work successful. In Erasure, Everett highlights the importance of all Black stories, rather than just those that limit the African American experience into stereotypes and thereby undermine their humanity and diversity. The literary marketplace is complicit with racism by silencing diverse Black voices and proliferating harmful stereotypes. The titular “erasure” that Everett refers to in the novel is the publishing industry’s suppression of Black writers who break stereotypes.
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