The Routledge Introduction to African American Literature

Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Table of Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgement......Page 7
1. Introduction and Overview: The Stories of African American Literature......Page 10
The Nature of The Routledge Introduction to African American Literature......Page 11
Historical and Literary Overview......Page 12
What Makes Black Literature “Black”?......Page 15
The Oral/Vernacular Tradition......Page 17
Popular v. High Art......Page 20
Is the Personal Necessarily Political?......Page 21
Does Race Trump Class?......Page 22
Improvisation, Play, Tricksters, and Conjurers......Page 24
Religion......Page 25
Assimilation and its Discontents......Page 26
Family Trees: Roots, Branches, and Severed Limbs......Page 28
Conclusion......Page 29
2. The Era of Slavery......Page 30
Earliest Works......Page 31
Slave Narratives......Page 35
The Beginnings of Fiction......Page 43
Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 50
3. Reconstruction through the 1910s......Page 51
Non-fiction Prose During and After Reconstruction:
Differences of Opinion......Page 52
Poets Emerge......Page 57
Fiction for a New Century: Double-consciousness and Passing Narratives......Page 61
Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 69
4. The Era of the Harlem Renaissance......Page 70
A Period Defined, Redefined, and Debated......Page 72
New Wine in Old Bottles, Old Wine in New Bottles......Page 76
Racial Self-doubt......Page 79
Common Folks, Folklore, Primitivism......Page 84
Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 90
5. Mid-Twentieth-Century Literature......Page 91
Richard Wright: Native Son and Beyond......Page 93
The 1940s: New Directions in Women’s Writing......Page 98
Ellison: A Voice from Underground......Page 101
James Baldwin: Exploding Expectations......Page 104
A Raisin in the Sun: Broadway Meets Black America......Page 108
Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 110
6. The 1960s and the black Arts Movement......Page 112
The Early 1960s: Moving Toward Radicalism......Page 113
The Death and Afterlife of Malcolm X......Page 115
The Black Arts Movement......Page 118
Prison as Platform and Corral......Page 125
Women and the Black Arts Movement......Page 129
Postmodernism Meets the Black Arts Movement: Neo-HooDoo Aesthetics......Page 132
Conclusion......Page 135
Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 136
7. 1970–2000: The Flourishing of Black Women Writers and the Return to Black History......Page 137
The 1970s and the Proliferation of Black Women Writers......Page 138
The Historical Impulse and the Rise of Toni Morrison......Page 142
Black Women Writers after Morrison......Page 150
Black Drama of the 1980s: Representing History Anew......Page 154
Toward the Twenty-First Century......Page 157
Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 160
8. Twenty-First-Century Writing: A Time of Reckoning......Page 161
Queer Black Writing in the Twenty-first Century......Page 163
The Caribbean: African American Immigrant Writers......Page 166
Clever, Irreverent, and Postmodern: “The New Black Aesthetic”......Page 171
Contemporary Black Drama: Self-consciousness......Page 176
Black Poetry in the Twenty-first Century: Lift Every Voice and Sing......Page 178
Spoken Word, Hip-hop, Rap, and “Hood Fiction”......Page 181
Conclusion......Page 184
Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 185
References......Page 186
Index......Page 193