American Fiction is a movie that will likely appeal to literature fans, but watching it may raise a question: was Stagg R. Leigh a real person? The fact that American Fiction is itself inspired by a novel complicates matters.
What Book Is American Fiction Based On?
The American Fiction movie is based on Erasure, a 2001 novel penned by Percival Everett.
Both the book and the movie follow Thelonious (Monk) Ellison, a black author and university professor from a wealthy background who places little emphasis on race and claims that he does not let it define him.
However, he's angry and offended when a middle-class black novelist's exploitative, poorly-researched novel becomes a success.
This, combined with the stagnation in his own professional life, with his recent novels being flops, leads Monk to angry-write a stereotypical, similarly-exploitative book titled Ma Pafology.
But what Monk wrote as a parody in a moment of inspiration becomes an unlikely success and is hailed as the authentic voice of America.
Monk's alter ego, Stagg R. Leigh, becomes a literary sensation. The once-frustrated author wins money and fame under his pseudonym, whom he must embody in public events, leading to complications he never imagined.
Was Stagg R. Leigh a Real Person? Who Is He and What's His Importance?
While American Fiction is based on a published novel by real author Percival Everett, Stagg R. Leigh is not a real person. He is the main character's alter ego in the aforementioned novel, Erasure, as well as in the movie.
In both the film and the novel, author Thelonious (Monk) Ellison, whose unsuccessfull literary works do not focus on his identity as a black man, writes a stereotypical ghetto novel under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh.
The name is phonetically similar to "Stagger Lee," a popular American murder ballad detailing the murder of Billy Lyons at the hands of Stagger Lee, an African American pimp.
Given that Monk Elisson intentionally writes a stereotypical ghetto novel in response to works by black authors that he finds exploitative, the folk song could be an inspiration behind the name.
If we were to describe Stagg R. Leigh and his role in American Fiction, we would name him the protagonist in the story-within-a-story that main character Monk Elisson weaves for himself.
At the time of Erasure's release, many critics considered the novel to be an extended parody of works such as Push by Sapphire (itself adapted into the movie Precious).
Although such works enjoyed criticial acclaim, some readers found the violence and suffering excessive.
Of course, the fact that American Fiction's protagonist chooses to focus his anger and creative energy on hating a particular genre of African American literature is itself a parody of color-blindedness in books and media.