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ShareStreet Literature, also known as Urban Fiction or Ghetto Lit, has established itself as a new type of African American popular fiction since the late ‘90s. Initiated with novels like The Coldest Winter Ever (1999) by Sister Souljah and Teri Woods’ True to the Game (1999), the genre now consists of thousands of works, many of them written by first-time authors. Produced and distributed through a complex network of self-publishing writers, independent African American publishers and mainstream presses, including Random House, Kensington and Simon & Schuster, the number of these novels is constantly growing.
Despite their success, however, Street Lit narratives continue to be a topic of controversy, as Wendy Solomon explains in her article“Street Lit’: Rapper 50 Cent lends his name to raw gangsta fiction” (20 September 2007): “The books are taking some heat from critics who say street lit, variously called ghetto lit, urban fiction or urban noire, is not only bad fiction, it’s no better than the stereotypes and misogyny perpetuated in gangsta rap. Others say street lit is a legitimate form of artistic expression of hip-hop culture, and an important and genuine reflection of a subculture.” Although the novels are regarded in some circles – especially among librarians – as being a vehicle to make reading more accessible, in particular to people who can identify with the stories’ grim inner city life, Street Lit narratives are subject to negative criticism for their inarticulate writing style and hyperbolic accounts of drug trade and conspicuous consumption.
Fear of an overall “degradation and sexualization of black fiction has been expressed by the author Nick Chiles in his article, “Their Eyes Were Reading Smut” (New York Times, 4 January 2006), reflecting a general concern on the part of the “more literary” African American authors that they will be pushed out of the market by the better-selling popular writers. As recently as last October, Chiles reconfirmed his opinion on the negative effects of Street Literature in the online magazine The Urban Book Source, by deploring the failure of Street Lit writers to “humbly approach[…] that blank page with a desire to say something about the human condition, to explore some of the peculiarities of trying to stay alive and thrive in a complicated age” (“Nick Chiles: A Critical Look at Street Lit”, October 2009).
Many of the novels are indeed rife with misogyny, depicting female characters as “pieces”, “dimes” or “trophies”, promote a double standard of sexual behavior – women being expected to remain monogamous while men are accepted to be “natural whoremongers” – and display gritty scenes of murder that go unpunished or are otherwise glorified. Be that as it may, merely dismissing the entire genre as being worthless and lacking literary value would do an injustice to an often contradictory, multifaceted and developing narrative form.
A particular important facet of the genre is how it is inextricably linked to the US penal system on multiple levels. Not only is Street Lit probably the genre with the largest number of authors and readers, who currently are, or formerly were, incarcerated. Imprisonment is also a central theme in most storylines, and also the novels’ distribution and marketing have become closely connected to America’s prison apparatus.
Thus, a study that considers prison as a central theme, location and trope of Street Literature not only pays attention to the novels’ promotion and commercial use of violent crime. It also reveals how – on the levels of production, distribution and marketing – the genre attests to the presence of a large group of African Americans, who – recalling Chiles’ words – do indeed “try[…] to stay alive and thrive in a complicated age.”
In order to fully comprehend the connection between Street Literature and America’s prison system, one first has to look at recent international and US prison statistics. According to the yearly reportof the International Centre for Prison Studies the US ranks not only at the top of the World Prison Population List (Roy Walmsley, “World Prison Population List”, International Centre for Prison Studies at King’s College London, 26 January 2009). With over two million people currently imprisoned in local jails and federal prisons, America has the highest reported incarceration rate per capita in the world – even more than far more populated China. Retracing records of the inmate population over recent decades, we also find a reversal from approximately 70 percent white inmates in the ‘50s to around 70 percent African American and Latino prisoners in today’s correctional facilities.
The latest Bureau of Justice statistics attest to the fact that the black population of the United States is affected disproportionally by the country’s prison system. According to the bulletin for 2008 there were a total of 591,900 black inmates, making up the majority of prisoners held in state and federal prisons as well as in local jails (William J. Sabol and Heather C. West, “Bureau of Justice Statistics. Bulletin Prisoners in 2008”, December 2009). In view of these numbers, it’s possible to imagine how the carceral system permeates and structures the lives of large parts of the African American population. Organizing family visits, shipping goods to often remote facilities, limited job opportunities for released prisoners and continuous supervision by probation and parole officers are just a few examples of how the prison system affects not just the convicts, but their families and friends, as well.
With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that the omnipresent prison experience has also found its way into the popular genre of Street Literature. Using examples from selected novels and correlations to their larger production and distribution contexts against the backdrop of America’s prison statistics, this essay will show how Street Literature simultaneously incorporates and critically reflects upon the effects that the prison complex has on many black citizens.
