The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance
This article argues that Beverly Jenkins’s Black historical romance is religious. In offering this analysis, this article draws attention to a long-standing African American religious historiographic tradition known as chronicling. From Maria Stewart to Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and beyond, Black...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR)
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Journal of Popular Romance Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/02/the-religious-work-of-beverly-jenkinss-black-historical-romance/ |
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| _version_ | 1823859688321581056 |
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| author | Jeania Ree V. Moore |
| author_facet | Jeania Ree V. Moore |
| author_sort | Jeania Ree V. Moore |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article argues that Beverly Jenkins’s Black historical romance is religious. In offering this analysis, this article draws attention to a long-standing African American religious historiographic tradition known as chronicling. From Maria Stewart to Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and beyond, Black chroniclers have written Black history with the sacred aim of rehabilitating Black historical consciousness: rewriting the past to empower the present and reimagine the future. Jenkins innovates in and amplifies the religiosity of Black chronicling through the erotic, a powerful religious resource embraced by Black women theologians, ethicists, and writers. This article draws on Black womanist and Black feminist scholarship to show how Jenkins centers desire, interiority, and pleasure within Black women’s moral agency and affirms Black women’s embodied flourishing. Bringing together African American historiography and popular romance studies with Black women’s theological ethics and literature, this article examines Jenkins’s novels, her formation as a writer, and her reader reception to shine a new light on the many facets of Black popular romance. Jenkins’s Black historical romance radically continues the religious legacy of chronicling Black history, effecting personal and communal transformation, liberation, and repair with the truth “‘of who [Black people] are and…were’” (Jenkins in Amos et al.). |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6a5feb243e154483a2779e8c3ef2fd5f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2159-4473 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Popular Romance Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-6a5feb243e154483a2779e8c3ef2fd5f2025-02-10T21:34:48ZengInternational Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR)Journal of Popular Romance Studies2159-44732025-02-011412110.70138/KBQG2589The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical RomanceJeania Ree V. Moore This article argues that Beverly Jenkins’s Black historical romance is religious. In offering this analysis, this article draws attention to a long-standing African American religious historiographic tradition known as chronicling. From Maria Stewart to Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and beyond, Black chroniclers have written Black history with the sacred aim of rehabilitating Black historical consciousness: rewriting the past to empower the present and reimagine the future. Jenkins innovates in and amplifies the religiosity of Black chronicling through the erotic, a powerful religious resource embraced by Black women theologians, ethicists, and writers. This article draws on Black womanist and Black feminist scholarship to show how Jenkins centers desire, interiority, and pleasure within Black women’s moral agency and affirms Black women’s embodied flourishing. Bringing together African American historiography and popular romance studies with Black women’s theological ethics and literature, this article examines Jenkins’s novels, her formation as a writer, and her reader reception to shine a new light on the many facets of Black popular romance. Jenkins’s Black historical romance radically continues the religious legacy of chronicling Black history, effecting personal and communal transformation, liberation, and repair with the truth “‘of who [Black people] are and…were’” (Jenkins in Amos et al.).https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/02/the-religious-work-of-beverly-jenkinss-black-historical-romance/beverly jenkinsblack historical romanceblack romanceethicshistorical romance fictionreligionthe erotictheology |
| spellingShingle | Jeania Ree V. Moore The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance Journal of Popular Romance Studies beverly jenkins black historical romance black romance ethics historical romance fiction religion the erotic theology |
| title | The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance |
| title_full | The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance |
| title_fullStr | The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance |
| title_short | The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance |
| title_sort | religious work of beverly jenkins s black historical romance |
| topic | beverly jenkins black historical romance black romance ethics historical romance fiction religion the erotic theology |
| url | https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/02/the-religious-work-of-beverly-jenkinss-black-historical-romance/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jeaniareevmoore thereligiousworkofbeverlyjenkinssblackhistoricalromance AT jeaniareevmoore religiousworkofbeverlyjenkinssblackhistoricalromance |