Description: Uses work from African-American studies to rethink the status of race in Victorian England.
Review Quotes: "Impossible Purities is a tour de force text that is certain to upset and 'repopulate' the canons of British, American, and African-American literary and cultural studies, never again allowing us to treat them as discrete categories. This is stunning, refreshingly original work, full of ingenious insights, strangely provocative pairings, and revealing 'hybridities, ' all passionately expressed in beautifully lucid--someteimes even lyrical--prose replete with 'wish-I'd-said-that' turns of phrase."--Ann DuCille, author of Skin Trade