Introduction -- The politics and production of interiority in the Messenger magazine (1922-23) -- The anxiety of birth in Nella Larsen's Quicksand -- Art's imperfect end: race and Gurdjieff in Jean Toomer's Transatlantic -- "A genuine cooperation": Richard Wright's and Ralph Ellison's psychoanalytic conversations -- Maternal anxieties and political desires in Adrienne Kennedy's Dramatic circle -- Racial sincerity and the biracial body in Danzy Senna's Caucasia