This article considers Cecil Brown’s debut novel The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger (1969) within the context of critical debates about transnational African American studies, and with a thematic focus on the novel’s representation of race, sex, and masculinity. It explores Jiveass’ intertextual relationships with Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice (1968), and James Baldwin’s writing. In particular, the article maps the “intertextual geographies” that connect Jiveass with two antecedent African American texts also set in Copenhagen: Nella Larsen’s novel Quicksand (1928) and Wright’s short story “Big Black Good Man” (1961).