Authentic Blackness: The Folk in the New Negro Renaissance (review)
tural constructs. Moreover, the more-or-less alternating chapters (the exceptions are the Silko and King chapters, which are back to back) suggest that the study will develop a dialogue between Native American texts and texts that arise from—although they may contest—the dominant culture. As the discussion develops, however, a geographically specific notion of the frontier alternates with extended postmodern concerns about the construction and deconstruction of borders in general and the "Western" imaginary broadly conceived. The chapter focusing on Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns illustrates the need for careful articulation of the relationship between "west" and "West." Provocative in its own right as an analysis of the reception of these films and their articulation of 1960s culture, the chapter does not fully elaborate questions the films raise about who is speaking, whose "west" is portrayed, and how the North American West figures in the encompassing EuroAmerican discourse, particularly as it is engaged by Europeans. Nonetheless, it is perhaps fittingly postmodern that the strength of this study lies in its exploration of particular contours rather than a broad landscape, and that the pleasures of those particulars are considerable.