The “Blaqueer [Blacker]” Church: Queerness as a Syncretic Religion in Robert Jones, Jr.’s The Prophets

Abstract

This work analyses the Western and precolonial African perceptions of queerness in Robert Jones, Jr.’s novel The Prophets. It shows that while Christian and African beliefs inform very different understandings of queerness, these beliefs are reconciliated in a syncretic religion that is centered around the main queer characters, Samuel and Isaiah, and relies on a reinterpretation of the Christian Bible inspired by James Cone’s Black liberation theology. To best address the representation of queerness in the novel, this dissertation also focuses on gender and gender hierarchy.