Austen, adaptation, and American literature: an analysis of Ibi Zoboi's Pride.

This article analyzes Ibi Zoboi’s novel *Pride* as a complex adaptation of Jane Austen’s *Pride and Prejudice* that foregrounds the romance and experiences of a Black teenager in a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood while embedding rich subtextual literary activity. Zoboi’s work layers intertextual references to American literary figures such as Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, positioning *Pride* as a metafictional meditation on reading, writing, and adaptation. The novel also engages with Afrofuturism by using literary adaptation to reclaim Black cultural heritage and imagine empowered Black futures, emphasizing the necessity of revisiting the past to envision new possibilities. By excising “and Prejudice” from the title, Zoboi signals ongoing challenges faced by Black creators within Austen fandoms and advocates for more inclusive and diverse futures in literary adaptation and scholarship.