Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Superb!
I have a lot of books, but this is one of the few that I will never part with. Each chapter in this anthology radiates true beauty.If you need a break from superficial entertainment--or an inspiring new role model--this is the book for you.

Wore Me Out
My Soul Has Grown Deep, John Edgar Wideman

I give the book five stars for the simple fact that the author put together a book that contains books I have been intending to read.Thereby, I had no excuse not to read them.I will say that reading this book was a "chore."It sat on my bookshelf for months and every time I looked up it was staring at me, demanding attention.I will give a brief summary of all the books below:

Richard Allen 5 stars

I enjoyed the book.I did learn something I had not known before.

Phillis Wheatley 3 Stars

Unfortunately, Phillis was the Wheatley's pet.I am sorry to say she died impoverished.

Jarena Lee 3 stars

I did not enjoy reading this book at all. The writing was dull.I found myself annoyed at Ms. Lee often.I got the distinct impression that she suffered some form of mental illness.She seemed to be somewhat a religious fanatic.The book mostly covered her extensive travel to preach the gospel.What struck me was her near abandonment of her child to others to raised while she traveled all over the place. However, I appreciate her story and contributions.

Olaudah Equiano 3 Stars

I did not like this book.Olaudah simply annoyed me with his butt kissing and religious ideas.I skipped over his preaching.He kept making the same mistakes over and over.I don't know; maybe I am applying my 21st sensibilities to his story.However, the insights into his capture, enslavement and experiences, particularly in the West Indies, were invaluable.

Sojourner Truth 3 Stars

I know that Mrs. Truth was illiterate, and she arranged for some else to write her story, but I kept getting the feeling that the writer was injecting too much of themselves and ideas into the story.This just doesn't feel like a first person story.

What most impressed me was her fight for her son Peter.She won that battle.Unfortunately, Peter turned out to be a disappointment.I don't know maybe she ran to his rescue too much.

Frederick Douglas 5 Stars

I enjoyed reading this story.I have been intending to read this book for years.Now I can mark it off my list.

Nat Love 5 Stars

Nat Love was a hoot.I absolutely loved reading his story.It was funny.He always seemed to be the hero in all of his tales.He made me smile and laugh.Deadwood Dick aka Nat Love was a true character.

Booker T. Washington 3 Stars

I did not like this book.I found Mr. Washington's butt kissing and non sense philosophy irritating and so unrealistic.However, I also recognize his shrewdness in kissing the white power structure butts.He did get Tuskegee built and funded.

Ida B. Wells 5 Stars

I loved Mrs. Wells' writings.It made for hard reading, but it was worth it.Mrs. Wells was a true activist, often fighting the battle alone, while the so-called leaders of the day sat back resenting her courage and the fame it garnered her.Why does everybody know who Frederick Doughlas and D.E.B Dubois are?She had more guts then both of these men put together.They never put themselves in dangerous situations to get to the truth.

W.E.B Dubois 3 Stars

I did not like this book at all.This is my second time reading it, and it was pure torture.First, Mr. Dubois was an elitist and had high disdain for the regular folk - the masses.Second, he was such a pretentious white wanna be.Third, his language is ornamental, wordy, and laborious, a pure bore. I don't understand what the big ado is all about.

I don't buy into the talented tenth.I believe everyone is there a leader.However, I do appreciate the idea of "double consciousness."Furthermore, any person who does consider himself a leader must live amongst the people he is supposedly leading.Otherwise, you have a self-appointed leader looking to paid.

James Weldon 3 Stars

The book was on my book list and I am glad I finally read it.It did not really have any affect on me.The character just decided to pass into the white world.

Paul Lawrence Dunbar 4 Stars

I liked Mr. Dunbar's poems.I wander what else he could have accomplished had he not died so young.

Words that never Expire...History that inspires
True this book is heavy and could make you look like a geek reading it outside the comfort of your home but that is where any criticsm for this extra-ordinary literary compilation ends. The essays that were so assiduously deliberated over, are without a shadow of doubt some of the finest that could have come out of those times. Not some ofthe finest that a black writer of those times could deliver but the finest any thinker or writer could put together and strangely enough i still find the underlining messages very relevant in social issues that face ethnic minorities in the west. Having the unique opportunity read great texts with boigrahical info to preceed the text is just great.
I think most of all, probably because it was my first time of reading it, was the essay and indeed the short biographical introduction of Ida B Wells which just simply blew me away. I could go on and on but you need to get a copy and READ IT - definately a collectors item

Unbeatable Resource For Black History and Culture
It might take all your strength to balance this ten pound book on your chest while you read yourself to sleep, but if you can muster the energy you'll be repaid with some of the best black history available.This collection captures the upbeat hilarity of Nat Love's cowboy experiences, the bittersweet saga of Frederick Douglass's escape to freedom, the positive energy of Booker Washington's philosophy of "lifting up [his] race" and much more.The detail and poignancy of each writer's experience with slavery is the most powerful common element of the writings.It might be too bulky to keep in your purse or backpack, but it's a valuable reference to have in a good personal library.

An outstanding presentation
This thick literary compilation of early Afro-American literary classics should be in the collection of any serious library: My Soul Has Grown Deep draws from both famous and neglected works from colonial days, drawing on narratives, oratory, and verse to sample a strong cross-section of black American literature. The attention to a range of genres and experiences makes this an outstanding presentation. ... Read more

Product Description
The first major twenty-first century history of four hundred years of black writing, The Cambridge History of African American Literature presents a comprehensive overview of the literary traditions, oral and print, of African-descended peoples in the United States. Expert contributors, drawn from the United States and beyond, emphasize the dual nature of each text discussed as a work of art created by an individual and as a response to unfolding events in American cultural, political, and social history. Unprecedented in scope, sophistication and accessibility, the volume draws together current scholarship in the field. It also looks ahead to suggest new approaches, new areas of study, and as yet undervalued writers and works. The Cambridge History of African American Literature is a major achievement both as a work of reference and as a compelling narrative and will remain essential reading for scholars and students in years to come. ... Read more

Product Description
A comprehensive collection of African-American literature features more than 120 writers with works covering more than two hundred years and encompassing the genres of fiction, poetry, short stories, drama, autobiography, journals, and letters.Amazon.com Review
A whopping 2,665 pages, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was 10 years in the making, and it proves to have been well worth the wait. Beginning with vernacular forms such as the spirituals and the blues, it encompasses the whole history of black writing from the poems of Phillis Wheatley to the work of contemporary writers such as Terri McMillan, Toni Morrison, and Charles Johnson. Each section includes an introductory essay, and there is a brief biographical essay for each writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Class Act2
I was truly amazed at the content of the stories in this anthology. Some are brutal and graphic, but they are not lacking for truth. It was painful to read some of the stories and accounts of slave life. I had to wonder what type of people could implement such a vile and dehumanizing institution, and force a race of human beings to submit to such treatments that they themselves would not, and could not endure. The authors deserve an incredible amount of credit, not only for their contributions, but for their bravery in writing and ultimately allowing the publishing of these stories. No telling how much is still out there that has not been, and probably won't be published.

good cheap
book arrived on time in the condition it said it would and it was very cheap!

Great for college course
This book was "required" reading for my college English course - African American Literature. It is full of amazing works that in my lifetime were hidden from view (I am a senior, that is in age, not as in school level). It is a rather large book for just casual reading. However, it is a wonderful book to use as a reference. I know it will stay on our bookshelf until the pages turn yellow and crumble. As far as Amazon is concerned, the price was good and the delivery time great.

Surprised
Currently taking "Introduction To African American Literature" and I thought this book was going to some boring standarized book like the rest but I was surprised how well the editors chose the content. The content is just perfect for the course. Being an avid listener of the blues I loved the selection used in the "vernacular" chapter. great book.

The Perfect Anthology on African American Literature
I first bought this book for a class in college. Some of the excerpts, poems, and novels in this book I read in other classes, but I found that having all of them together in one anthology is perfect. Its progression from slave narratives that begin in Africa up to early hip-hop of the 1990's keeps the reader intrigued, moving along, following the struggle in America. There is simply too much to go over in a little review, but I can definitely say that this is a must have if you are interested in reading African American Literature...I just wish I kept my cheaper college copy! Oh well, at least I have a new copy this time ; )

Richard Beckham II, author of the coming of age novel, "Frog in the Pot" and fantasy novel, "The Tale of Mu" available on Amazon.com. Frog in the Pot The Tale of Mu ... Read more

Product Description
A unique and vital guide that summarizes, explains and evaluates the greatest works of African-American literatureincluding articles on writings from James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Toni Morrison and many more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Essential companion for any literary lover!
For any interested in the culture and history of African American literature, published in 1992, this is a great guide, a keepsake.If you don't know of any famous or not so famous African novelists, poets, playwrights, essayists, biographers, this book will introduce you to plenty.

Frank McGill has compiled this companion to Masterpieces of American Literature (Masterpieces of ... Series),Masterpieces of World Literature, and Masterpieces of World Philosophy.

Here, you will get a summary of the plot, description of the central characters, an analysis, and critical evaluation of the work.The summary and analysis average 1,000 words, while the critical evaluation is about 500 words. Included with publication date, is the genre, such as:autobiography, novel, poetry, play.But on top of that, you will learn the type the genre is, mainly: slave narrative, social criticism, poetic drama, naturalism, psychological realism, etc.

McGill has enlisted the aid of contributing reviewers, namely distinguished professors from universities, but only a name is applied to the end of the essays.

You will find enough on James Baldwin, Terry McMilan, Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Ernest Gaines, W.E.B. Dubois, Malcolm X, August Wilson, Richard Wright, Ntozake Shange, Chester Himes, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, etc. Plenty of poets, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling Brown, Nikki Giovanni, June Jordan, Claude McKay and more.

This compilation is absolutely essential to any literary lover!......Rizzo
... Read more

Product Description

It is widely accepted that the canon of African American literature has racial realism at its core: African American protagonists, social settings, cultural symbols, and racial-political discourse. As a result, writings that are not preoccupied with race have long been invisible—unpublished, out of print, absent from libraries, rarely discussed among scholars, and omitted from anthologies.

However, some of our most celebrated African American authors—from Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright to James Baldwin and Toni Morrison—have resisted this canonical rule, even at the cost of critical dismissal and commercial failure. African American Literature Beyond Race revives this remarkable literary corpus, presenting sixteen short stories, novelettes, and excerpts of novels-from the postbellum nineteenth century to the late twentieth century-that demonstrate this act of literary defiance. Each selection is paired with an original introduction by one of today's leading scholars of African American literature, including Hazel V. Carby, Gerald Early, Mae G. Henderson, George Hutchinson, Carla Peterson, Amritjit Singh, and Werner Sollors.

By casting African Americans in minor roles and marking the protagonists as racially white, neutral, or ambiguous, these works of fiction explore the thematic complexities of human identity, relations, and culture. At the same time, they force us to confront the basic question, "What is African American literature?"

Stories by: James Baldwin, Octavia E. Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Chester B. Himes, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Toni Morrison, Ann Petry, Wallace Thurman, Jean Toomer, Frank J. Webb, Richard Wright, and Frank Yerby.

Critical Introductions by: Hazel V. Carby, John Charles, Gerald Early, Hazel Arnett Ervin, Matthew Guterl, Mae G. Henderson, George B. Hutchinson, Gene Jarrett, Carla L. Peterson, Amritjit Singh, WernerSollors, and Jeffrey Allen Tucker.

Product Description
Through a series of essays that explore the forms, themes, genres, historical contexts, major authors, and latest critical approaches, A Companion to African American Literature presents a comprehensive chronological overview of African American literature from the eighteenth century to the modern day

• Examines African American literature from its earliest origins, through the rise of antislavery literature in the decades leading into the Civil War, to the modern development of contemporary African American cultural media, literary aesthetics, and political ideologies
• Addresses the latest critical and scholarly approaches to African American literature
• Features essays by leading established literary scholars as well as newer voices

Product Description
A freelance ghost writer of poetry, fiction, and academia, Brad Bechler presents his debut book of poetry which chronicles his struggles and observations from the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. His work is a poetic documentary of race and class disparities deeply rooted in the South, and how a great American city’s spirit and rich history were destroyed by something less apparent than a storm. With influences from Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Rita Dove, and James Baldwin, Bechler tries to uncover truth and a dialogue in what, arguably, is one of the most memorable moments in this modern era. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Invitation to Walk a Path of Healing
Brad Bechler is a survivor of Hurricane Katrina who reached out to me as I worked to help people get back on their feet after the great Iowa floods of 2008. He is the author of When Will the Sky Fall, a Hurricane Katrina documentary in poetry.

Many of our experiences in the midwest were reminiscent of those of New Orleans a few years earlier.Yet each individual's experience is different.Beyond this, each individual uniquely processes, expresses and shares his or her experience.

Bechler artfully captures his experience of Hurricane Katrina as a talented poet...and provides a tool to help others process loss and suffering and come out the other end with hope.

Poetry writing is not a talent (art form!) I share, but it's one I couldn't help but appreciate and be touched by as I read Bechler's beautiful and, at times, haunting prose.

Natural disasters - and certainly the level of aftermath faced by the people of New Orleans - bring great loss and suffering. When Will the Sky Fall offers an interpretation of this event and its aftermath that speaks of survivorship and prevailing hope.

This book can play a special role in helping survivors heal and continue walking forward, one step at a time.

Mollie Marti, Ph.D.
Author, The 12 Factors of Business Success

Sure to be a timeless classic...
With death all around us,
where do we put them?
Whisper in my ear
Like the bright
Wind sweetened by
Rocks of the sea's salt.
Tell me where do we place
The Flower?
~Brad Bechler, When Will the Sky Fall, pg. 85


Where were you when you learned of the events that took place in New Orleans on August 28, 2005?

I am sure you remember.

I sat in the comfort of home watching images that provoked an array of emotions ranging from sadness to outrage.Like so many other people, I found myself asking how this could happen in the United States and wondered what would have been like to be in New Orleans during that time?

Brad Bechler is a survivor of Hurricane Katrina who offers his experience through the eyes of a poet.Bechler does a great job expounding upon the cognitive shift that tends to take place during times of crisis. Throughout this work, one gets a sense of the way in which one's life, one's plans and even one's world view is altered during such events.He goes on to show the way in which he grew positively as a result of this personal journey.

In this way, Bechler's book is reminiscent of Victor Frankl's classic, Man's Search For Meaning. There is one difference: Frankl depicted dehumanizing situations from the perspective of a psychiatrist while Bechler is a wordsmith whose prose will stick in your mind long after you finish the book.When Will the Sky Fall is a work of poetic art.

For many people, memories the hurricane evokes feelings of sorrow, suffering, and loss.Bechler offers a new and positive perception of this event - a sense of survivorship and prevailing hope.

I found When Will the Sky Fall to be truly healing.

You will, too.

... Read more

Product Description

Product Description

"In Deans and Truants Gene Jarrett has inaugurated an entirely new approach to the subject of canon-formation in African American literature, insisting that we expand our definition of the tradition to include black authors who chose not to write about race and who, consequently, have often found their works uncollected and unanalyzed, if not severely critiqued. Jarrett's cogent and compelling argument is sure to generate debate and, ultimately, lead to a reconsideration of what, exactly, is 'African American' about African American literature. This is a very important book and marks the inaugural intervention of one of the major scholars and critics of African American literature of a new generation."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University

For a work to be considered African American literature, does it need to focus on black characters or political themes? Must it represent these within a specific stylistic range? Or is it enough for the author to be identified as African American? In Deans and Truants, Gene Andrew Jarrett traces the shifting definitions of African American literature and the authors who wrote beyond those boundaries at the cost of critical dismissal and, at times, obscurity. From the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth, de facto deans--critics and authors as different as William Howells, Alain Locke, Richard Wright, and Amiri Baraka--prescribed the shifting parameters of realism and racial subject matter appropriate to authentic African American literature, while truant authors such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, George S. Schuyler, Frank Yerby, and Toni Morrison--perhaps the most celebrated African American author of the twentieth century--wrote literature anomalous to those standards.

Jarrett explores the issues at stake when Howells, the "Dean of American Letters," argues in 1896 that only Dunbar's "entirely black verse," written in dialect, "would succeed." Three decades later, Locke, the cultural arbiter of the Harlem Renaissance, stands in contrast to Schuyler, a journalist and novelist who questions the existence of a peculiarly black or "New Negro" art. Next, Wright's 1937 blueprint for African American writing sets the terms of the Chicago Renaissance, but Yerby's version of historical romance approaches race and realism in alternative literary ways. Finally, Deans and Truants measures the gravitational pull of the late 1960s Black Aesthetic in Baraka's editorial silence on Toni Morrison's first and only short story, "Recitatif."

Drawing from a wealth of biographical, historical, and literary sources, Deans and Truants describes the changing notions of race, politics, and gender that framed and were framed by the authors and critics of African American culture for more than a century.

Product Description
"Tell me a story," says a little girl to her grandfather. So begins this one-of-a-kind look at the history of African American literature. from the first slave narratives and the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, through Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, to Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou, Sweet Words So Brave puts the literature in the context of American history and brings the lives, the times, and the extraordinary literary accomplishments of African American writers vividly to life. This is a book to cherish and share. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?
Sweet Words So Brave... what's up with that?The title would more appropriately read- Listen little girl and I'll tell you a story.
An abbreviated history ofBlack folk in America is given.Since the book is only 20+ pages long, you know not much history can be told in those few pages.However, what is shown is very good.

I am most impressed with the fact that this book gives a seriouspicture of Black people in America.The Ilustrator, Jerry Butler,needs to produce books on his own as his pictures make the book.Every picture is packed with so much reality I thought I saw myself on one of those pages. Every house on the planet should read this book and dust-off a place on the bookshelf for this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Washington challenges the long-held assumption that African American literature aptly reflects black American social consciousness. Offering a novel sociological approach, Washington delineates the social and political forces that shaped the leading black literary works, and shows that deep divisions between political thinkers and writers prevailed throughout the 20th century. Successful black writers inevitably diluted their ideological constructions of African American life as they gained celebrity as part of the mainstream American literary establishment. Encompassing the tumultuous and often volatile decades of transition in American race relations from 1920 to 1970, the book analyzes the sociological origins and cultural implications of the ideological images of black America projected by the dominant black literary schools: the primitivist Harlem Renaissance school of the 1920s, the naturalistic protest school of the Depression years, the existentialist school of the Cold War era, the moral suasion of the civil rights era, and the cultural nationalist school of the late 1960s. Washington's examination features the great African American writers beginning with Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen and continues through the decades with Richard Wright's "Native Son", Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man", James Baldwin and concluding with the controversial Amiri Baraka. This book is an extensive evaluation of whether these writers served the black American social consciousness, or ignored the social implications of their work. Not only does it create a thought provoking discourse, but it also gives the history of the social surroundings that shaped many of these authors as well as their writings. ... Read more

Product Description
From the Harlem Renaissance to the present, African American writers have drawn on the rich heritage of jazz and blues, transforming musical forms into the written word. In this companion volume to The Hearing Eye, distinguished contributors ranging from Bertram Ashe to Steven C. Tracy explore the musical influence on such writers as Sterling Brown, J.J. Phillips, Paul Beatty, and Nathaniel Mackey. Here, too, are Graham Lock's engaging interviews with contemporary poets Michael S. Harper and Jayne Cortez, along with studies of the performing self, in Krin Gabbard's account of Miles Davis and John Gennari's investigation of fictional and factual versions of Charlie Parker. The book also looks at African Americans in and on film, from blackface minstrelsy to the efforts of Duke Ellington and John Lewis to rescue jazz from its stereotyping in Hollywood film scores as a signal for sleaze and criminality. Concluding with a proposal by Michael Jarrett for a new model of artistic influence, Thriving on a Riff makes the case for the seminal cross-cultural role of jazz and blues. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is written by teachers interested in bringing African American literature into the classroom. Documented here is the learning process that these educators experienced themselves as they read and discussed the stories & pedagogical. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book strikes against the mariginalization of A/A lit.
The authors chosen for this edited work write in a reader-friendly manner. The theory of teaching African American literature is grounded in classroom practice. Individual works of authors along with different genres arediscussed and placed in the context of classroom instruction. The strugglesthat are encountered in an attempt to incorporate A/A lit is alsodiscussed. This is a great resource for educators to have. I also found thecompiled bibliography very useful. A very candid, thoughtful piece of work. ... Read more

Product Description

With more than 1,000 entries by more than 200 expert contributors, this encyclopedia is the most comprehensive reference available on African American literature. While most of the entries are on individual authors, the encyclopedia gives special attention to the historical, cultural, and political contexts that have shaped African American writing. Included are entries on critical movements and terms, critics and scholars, historical and social issues, cultural and historical figures, literary forms and genres, literary schools and organizations, and many other topics. The entries cite numerous print and electronic resources, and the encyclopedia concludes with a selected, general bibliography.

Designed to meet the needs of high school students, undergraduates, and general readers, this encyclopedia is the most comprehensive reference available on African American literature from its origins to the present. Other works include many brief entries, or offer extended biographical sketches of a limited selection of writers. This encyclopedia surpasses existing references by offering full and current coverage of a vast range of authors and topics. While most of the entries are on individual authors, the encyclopedia gathers together information about the genres and geographical and cultural environments in which these writers have worked, and the social, political, and aesthetic movements in which they have participated. Thus the encyclopedia gives special attention to the historical and cultural forces that have shaped African American writing.

In addition to drawing upon the learning of Hans Ostrom, J. David Macey, Jr., and more than 200 expert contributors, the encyclopedia benefits from an editorial board of such distinguished scholars as: Houston A. Baker, Jr., Emily Bernard,Michele Elam,Dolan Hubbard, and Sheila Smith McKoy.

Because of its broad scope, substantial entries, current coverage, and extensive attention to historical, political, and social contexts, this encyclopedia will be the major resource for high school students and teachers interested in the full range of the African American experience. Academic and public libraries will also treasure this work as an incomparable guide to our nation's African American heritage.

Product Description
In the works of such writers as Ralph Ellison, Gloria Naylor, Brent Wade, Ishmael Reed, Jill Nelson, and Bebe Moore Campbell,we see that blacks who work in predominantly white corporations pay a terrible emotional and moral price. Wade and Nelson conclude that such situations have caused many blacks to go quietly insane. Reed draws a rather frightening connection between the corporate and academic worlds. In Ellison's Invisible Man, the young narrator learns of the extent to which Northern corporations control the activities of a Southern black college, and understands that he is invisible "because people refuse to see me." ... Read more

Product Description
The Black community has historically suffered stasis on the political level. W.E.B. Du Bois originally identified the source of the stasis as a contradiction of political goals within individuals and Black culture. During the last century, the development of African American political organizations has institutionalized this "contradiction of double aims." That institutionalization is largely due to the energy and resources of two distinct and often contradicting political traditions-Black nationalism and the Black American Jeremiad. It is within a third tradition, Black cultural pluralism, that a possible discourse exists that can address the stasis within the Black community. This book attempts to reconstruct the development of this third tradition and posits it as the most viable source of Black political development. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of essays critically interrogates Toni Morrison's use of the Bible in her novels, examining the ways in which the author plays on the original text to raise issues of spirituality as it affects race, gender, and class. Ideal for courses on Morrison or on explorations of the intersection of religion and literature, this collection treats its topic with sophistication, considering "religion" in its broadest possible sense, and examining syncretic theologies as well as mainstream religions in its attempt to locate Morrison's work in a spiritual-theological nexus. ... Read more

Product Description

After a long and painful transatlantic passage, African captives reached a continent they hadn't even known existed, where they were treated in ways that broke every law of civilization as they understood it. This was the discovery of America for a good number of our ancestors, one quite different from the "paradise" Columbus heralded but no less instrumental in shaping the country's history. What finding the New World meant to those who never sought it, and how they made the hostile, unfamiliar continent their own, is the subject of this volume, the first truly international collection of essays on African American literature and culture.

Distinguished scholars, critics, and writers from around the world gather here to examine a great variety of moments that have defined the African American experience. What were the values, images, and vocabulary that accompanied African "explorers" on their terrifying Columbiad, and what new forms did they develop to re-invent America from a black perspective? How did an extremely heterogeneous group of African pioneers remake themselves as African Americans? The authors search out answers in such diverse areas as slavery, the transatlantic tradition, urbanization, rape and lynching, gender, Paris, periodicals, festive moments, a Berlin ethnologist, Afrocentrism, Mark Twain, Spain, Casablanca, orality, the 1960s, Black-Jewish relations, television images, comedy, and magic. William Wells Brown, Frank Webb, W. E. B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Etheridge Knight, Ishmael Reed, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, and Charles Johnson are among the many writers they discuss in detail. The result, a landmark text in African American studies, reveals, within a broader context than ever before, the great and often unpredictable variety of complex cultural forces that have been at work in black America.

Product Description
This is the first comprehensive resource devoted to the analysis, interpretation, history, and appreciation of African American literature. The definitive book on the subject, it will be indispensable to students, scholars, and libraries at all levels.

The handbook features an A to Z compilation of 415 literary terms, ages, movements, periods, and cultural sources, all cross-referenced. Terms include techniques, genres, themes, forms, well-known phrases, modes of discourse, theoretical concepts, and diction from music and linguistics. Definitions provide substantive discussion and cite specific examples from the works of major critics and major and minor writers from the 1700s to the present. Up-to-date and relevant, the guide includes information from the colonial and reconstruction periods to the postmodern era and from cultural sources ranging from folk legends to hip-hop music.

Eight full-length essays, which serve as introductions to important aspects of literary theory and criticism, cover major terms--ambiguity, memory, signification, repetition, collective unconscious, representation, influence, and literary history. In addition to discussions of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, the book describes the Chicago Renaissance of the 1930s to 1950s, the New Renaissance of the 1950s, and the new black aesthetics of the 1980s. An especially compelling feature of the book is a literary timeline, divided into sections for African, African American, and Anglophone Caribbean literature that illustrates what was written during the same years in different parts of the world. The book also lists awards and honors given to African American authors.

Long overdue, Hazel Arnett Ervin's accessible handbook fills a void in literary arts and letters, a tribute to the rich vernacular tradition that has evolved from African American oral and written expression. ... Read more