The Blues Matrix: Cultural Discourses and Community in Erna Brodber's Louisiana

In this essay, Meriwether argues that Erna Brodber's representation of Vodou, spiritism, and blues music in her novel Louisiana illuminates a shared praxis among Afro-diasporic subjects that forms the basis of their viable political community. Using Houston A. Baker Jr.'s theory of the “blues matrix” and Homi K. Bhabha's theory of culture as enunciation rather than epistemology, Meriwether contends that Brodber's community comes into effect through various cultural discourses, and that these discourses illuminate a novel form of collective agency that is radically different from Westernized notions of community.