“Imperium in Imperio” is a novel by author Sutton E. Griggs, published in 1899. It follows the story of Belton Piedmont, a young, educated African American man living in a small, racism-ridden town. The novel deals with issues of racism, social injustice, and class disparities in the late 19th century.
I score it a 5 out of 5 coffee mugs!
I loved reading this book in my last Semester of Graduate Studies and having the time to really dissect it.
Belton, ambitious and determined to break free from the oppressive racism he experiences, uses education and knowledge as his tool. With the help of a secret organization of African Americans called the Brotherhood of Liberty, Belton strives to improve the African American community’s social, economic, and political standing. He faces immense opposition from a white supremacist organization, the Knights of the White Camelia, and is eventually forced to take drastic measures to ensure his success.
The novel paints a vivid picture of life in the South during this time, and emphasizes the importance of education, perseverance, and activism in the fight for justice. Griggs’ novel is an important work of literature, not only for its exploration of racism and social injustice, but for its powerful message of hope, resilience, and solidarity in the face of adversity.
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How is Imperium in Imperio a Different Type of Fiction?
Sutton E. Griggs’s novel, Imperium in Imperio is different from other economic novels in that it doesn’t exactly fit in as a sentimental novel, a realist piece, or a utopian fiction. Imperium in Imperio should be viewed as fiction that falls under the genre of the “fantastic,” as French literary critic, Tzvetan Todorov has described and demarcated in his work, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre. I will argue that writing a work that falls into the fantastic realm has been developed out of a natural response or need to overcome the harsh realities of the reconstruction period, as well presenting a different vision of the supernatural that was expressed via white American gothic tropes.
While other white American writers were applying traditional fear and gothic tropes to their stories, Griggs had to present a work that would help his readers overcome their fears, and by doing so, Griggs created a work of fantastic literature. Imperium in Imperio has transcended to a fantastic piece of fiction out of survival in a sense.
As the discussion regarding Griggs work is becoming more popular and more of his works are uncovered and redefined for a modern audience, this article will solely focus on Imperium in Imperio and how it completes the three conditions prescribed by Todorov to be considered a work in the fantastic.
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As prescribed by Todorov, the fantastic requires the success of three conditions:
First, the text must oblige the reader to consider the world of the characters as a world of living persons and to hesitate between a natural and a supernatural explanation of the events described. Second, this hesitation may also be experienced by a character; thus the reader’s role is so to speak entrusted to a character, and at the same time the hesitation is represented, it becomes one of the themes of the work… Third, the reader must adopt a certain attitude with regard to the text: he will reject allegorical as well as “poetic” interpretations. The first and the third actually constitute the genre; the second may not be fulfilled. (Todorov 33)
Ultimately, what we are looking for is not the supernatural or only the instances in which the traditional gothic tropes are challenged. As Todorov writes, “we might indeed characterize such events as supernatural, but the supernatural, though a literary category, is no relevant here” (Todorov 34). We want to find the crux – not between real and the supernatural, but in which “the hesitation occurs between the real and the imaginary” (Todorov 36).
A caveat to the fantastic is that it may “evaporate at any moment” because once the reader makes a decision, the effect has worn off. This is important to note because there are many stories where there are scenes of uncertainty or the imaginary- this may be common in any genre. The emphasis in the defense of a true fantastic literature is that the work enforces and keeps the effects of blending between the imaginary and the real throughout the whole fiction, not just in certain scenes.
Why the fantastic though, and what relevancy does that genre have with American writers? In Theorizing the American Fantastic and the American Grotesque, Ib Johansen points out how the American fantastic is being noticed in Europe and our international readers note that “the birth of the nation (USA) incidentally coincided with the rise of fantastic fiction on the literary scene”, and how Europe was only marginally interested in the fantastic – it was the Americans who were fascinated with it (7).
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Some other writers of the fantastic in early American literature would be Edgar Allan Poe, Melville, Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, and Henry James. In his introduction to his collection of essays, American Nightmares: The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction, Dale Bailey agrees with Johansen that “the American renaissance, which borrowed a series of conventions already extent in the European gothic and cast them into a uniquely American form” (15). Griggs is no exception – he too takes the gothic trope and reinvents them in Imperium.
Leaving other critics and debates on whether we consider the fantastic to be either a genre or a mode, this article will focus on identifying the art created in response to the socio-economic situation in the black south.
Thank you for visiting with us. For more Poetry or Literature related content, visit our blog at The Ritual.
Sutton E. Griggs’ Background: Sutton E. Griggs was an African-American author, Baptist minister, and social activist born on June 19, 1872, in Chatfield, Texas1. He was the son of a former slave who became a prominent Baptist minister and founder of the first black newspaper and high school in Texas1. Griggs attended Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, and Richmond Theological Seminary1. Throughout his career, he wrote over thirty books and pamphlets, advocating for social justice and racial integration1.
Impact of ‘Imperium in Imperio’ on Literature:
Griggs’ novel ‘Imperium in Imperio,’ published in 1899, is a visionary work that envisions a separate African-American state within the United States1. It is considered a precursor to Afrofuturism, blending themes of a budding revolution and the formation of a Black utopia2. The novel’s impact lies in its political statements and its exploration of the different directions in which turn-of-the-century African Americans might move3. It remains Griggs’ most notable work and continues to be relevant in discussions about race, segregation, and African-American militancy2.
mind on fire books 
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