Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature

Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature PDF Author: Houston A. Baker, Jr.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022616084X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
Relating the blues to American social and literary history and to Afro-American expressive culture, Houston A. Baker, Jr., offers the basis for a broader study of American culture at its "vernacular" level. He shows how the "blues voice" and its economic undertones are both central to the American narrative and characteristic of the Afro-American way of telling it.

Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature

Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature PDF Author: Houston A. Baker, Jr.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226035369
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Book Description
Relating the blues to American social and literary history and to Afro-American expressive culture, Houston A. Baker, Jr., offers the basis for a broader study of American culture at its "vernacular" level. He shows how the "blues voice" and its economic undertones are both central to the American narrative and characteristic of the Afro-American way of telling it.

The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African American Fiction

The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African American Fiction PDF Author: Darryl Dickson-Carr
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231510691
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
From Ishmael Reed and Toni Morrison to Colson Whitehead and Terry McMillan, Darryl Dickson-Carr offers a definitive guide to contemporary African American literature. This volume-the only reference work devoted exclusively to African American fiction of the last thirty-five years-presents a wealth of factual and interpretive information about the major authors, texts, movements, and ideas that have shaped contemporary African American fiction. In more than 160 concise entries, arranged alphabetically, Dickson-Carr discusses the careers, works, and critical receptions of Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Jamaica Kincaid, Charles Johnson, John Edgar Wideman, Leon Forrest, as well as other prominent and lesser-known authors. Each entry presents ways of reading the author's works, identifies key themes and influences, assesses the writer's overarching significance, and includes sources for further research. Dickson-Carr addresses the influence of a variety of literary movements, critical theories, and publishers of African American work. Topics discussed include the Black Arts Movement, African American postmodernism, feminism, and the influence of hip-hop, the blues, and jazz on African American novelists. In tracing these developments, Dickson-Carr examines the multitude of ways authors have portrayed the diverse experiences of African Americans. The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African American Fiction situates African American fiction in the social, political, and cultural contexts of post-Civil Rights era America: the drug epidemics of the 1980s and 1990s and the concomitant "war on drugs," the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, the struggle for gay rights, feminism, the rise of HIV/AIDS, and racism's continuing effects on African American communities. Dickson-Carr also discusses the debates and controversies regarding the role of literature in African American life. The volume concludes with an extensive annotated bibliography of African American fiction and criticism.

Afro-American Literary Study in the 1990s

Afro-American Literary Study in the 1990s PDF Author: Houston A. Baker (Jr.)
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226035376
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description
Featuring the work of the most distinguished scholars in the field, this volume assesses the state of Afro-American literary study and projects a vision of that study for the 1990s. "A rich and rewarding collection."—Choice. "This diverse and inspired collection . . . testifies to the Afro-Am academy's extraordinary vitality."—Voice Literary Supplement

Burnin' Down the House

Burnin' Down the House PDF Author: Valerie Sweeney Prince
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023113441X
Category : African American families in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 167

Book Description
-- Cheryl A. Wall, Rutgers University

Icons of African American Literature

Icons of African American Literature PDF Author: Yolanda Williams Page
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313352046
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 534

Book Description
The 24 entries in this book provide extensive coverage of some of the most notable figures in African American literature, such as Alice Walker, Richard Wright, and Zora Neale Hurston. Icons of African American Literature: The Black Literary World examines 24 of the most popular and culturally significant topics within African American literature's long and immensely fascinating history. Each piece provide substantial, in-depth information—much more than a typical encyclopedia entry—while remaining accessible and appealing to general and younger readers. Arranged alphabetically, the entries cover such writers as Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and August Wilson; major works, such as Invisible Man, Native Son, and Their Eyes Were Watching God; and a range of cultural topics, including the black arts movement, the Harlem Renaissance, and the jazz aesthetic. Written by expert contributors, the essays discuss the enduring significance of these topics in American history and popular culture. Each entry also provides sidebars that highlight interesting information and suggestions for further reading.

African American Literary Theory

African American Literary Theory PDF Author: Winston Napier
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814758096
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 745

Book Description
Fifty-one essays by writers such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as critics and academics such as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. examine the central texts and arguments in African American literary theory from the 1920s through the present. Contributions are organized chronologically beginning with the rise of a black aesthetic criticism, through the Black Arts Movement, feminism, structuralism and poststructuralism, queer theory, and cultural studies. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

African American Literature

African American Literature PDF Author: Hans Ostrom
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 571

Book Description
This essential volume provides an overview of and introduction to African American writers and literary periods from their beginnings through the 21st century. This compact encyclopedia, aimed at students, selects the most important authors, literary movements, and key topics for them to know. Entries cover the most influential and highly regarded African American writers, including novelists, playwrights, poets, and nonfiction writers. The book covers key periods of African American literature—such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and the Civil Rights Era—and touches on the influence of the vernacular, including blues and hip hop. The volume provides historical context for critical viewpoints including feminism, social class, and racial politics. Entries are organized A to Z and provide biographies that focus on the contributions of key literary figures as well as overviews, background information, and definitions for key subjects.

Afro-American Poetics

Afro-American Poetics PDF Author: Houston A. Baker (Jr.)
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299115043
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
Baker envisages the mission of black culture since the 1920s as "Afro-American spirit work." In the blues, the post-modernist "chant poem," the oratory of Malcolm X and the political plays of Amiri Baraka, Baker notes the unfolding creation of a "racial epic" in which black Americans may discover their place in U.S. society and find their ancestral roots. He analyzes Jean Toomer's stream-of-consciousness protest novel Cane, ponders why apolitical poet Countee Cullen became a voice of the people and pays tribute to critic-poet Larry Neal and to Hoyt Fuller, the editor of Negro Digest who allied himself with the Black Arts movement. He also traces his own shift from "guerrilla theater revolutionary" to embattled theoretician. ISBN 0-299-11500-3: $22.50 (For use only in the library).

The African American Male, Writing, and Difference

The African American Male, Writing, and Difference PDF Author: W. Lawrence Hogue
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791487008
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
Argues that African American literature must take into account the rich diversity of African American life and culture.