SOURCE: Little, Jonathan. “Charles Johnson's Revolutionary Oxherding Tale.” Studies in American Fiction 19, no. 2 (autumn 1991): 141-51.

In the following essay, Little examines Oxherding Tale as a story of interracial romance that addresses issues of gender, race, and identity.

Consistent with his call for literary experimentation and diversity in Being and Race (1988), Charles Johnson's metafictional Oxherding Tale (1982) opens up new areas for fiction dealing with black-white interracial romance. In casually endorsing interracial mixture, and in parodying sentimental and sensational precedents, Oxherding Tale signals the latest and most revolutionary stage of an evolving and important literary tradition.

Early African-American fiction consistently showed that solidarist interest should thwart any attempts at interracial romance. Understandably, for African-Americans writing before, during, and after the Civil War, racial loyalty was perceived as a necessary bulwark and a weapon against an inhospitable and often racist white America. Novels such as Frank Webb's The Garies and Their...