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# A Critical Examination of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature
Author: Dr. Anika Nzinga, Professor of African American Literature and Culture, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Nzinga has published extensively on the history and impact of canonical and marginalized voices within the African American Literature Norton Anthology, specializing in the representation of women and the evolving definitions of the African American literary tradition.
Keywords: African American Literature Norton Anthology, African American Literature, Norton Anthology, Black Literature, American Literature, Literary Canon, Representation, Diversity, Inclusion, Critical Race Theory, Postcolonial Literature
Introduction: Navigating the Landscape of the African American Literature Norton Anthology
The African American Literature Norton Anthology stands as a monumental achievement in the field of literary studies, yet its very existence necessitates a critical and nuanced examination. This anthology, like any attempt to compile a representative body of work, grapples with inherent challenges related to definition, canon formation, and the ongoing debates surrounding representation and inclusion. This article will explore both the opportunities and obstacles presented by this influential text, analyzing its successes, shortcomings, and lasting impact on the understanding and teaching of African American literature.
The Opportunities: Expanding Access and Fostering Dialogue
One of the most significant contributions of the African American Literature Norton Anthology is its accessibility. By bringing together a vast collection of works spanning centuries and diverse genres, it offers a single point of entry for students and scholars seeking to engage with African American literary traditions. This curated collection facilitates a deeper understanding of the richness and complexity of the African American experience, moving beyond simplistic narratives and embracing the multifaceted nature of identity, history, and social justice. The anthology's inclusivity, while always a work in progress as we will see, opens dialogues on themes of race, class, gender, and sexuality within the context of American history and culture. The very act of assembling such a collection underscores the importance of recognizing and valuing the contributions of African American writers, countering the historical marginalization within mainstream literary canons.
The anthology also fosters crucial interdisciplinary conversations. The works included often intersect with historical, sociological, and political contexts, encouraging readers to approach literature as a powerful lens through which to examine the broader social landscape. This intertextuality enhances the reading experience, enriching the understanding of individual pieces and expanding the analytical possibilities.
The Challenges: Canon Formation and the Politics of Representation
Despite its positive contributions, the African American Literature Norton Anthology faces significant challenges. The very act of creating an anthology involves making choices, inevitably leading to questions about what gets included and, more importantly, what gets left out. The editors, however well-intentioned, confront the daunting task of navigating a vast and constantly evolving literary landscape. Decisions regarding which authors and works to include inevitably reflect the editors' own biases, theoretical frameworks, and the limitations of the available space. This raises critical questions about the construction of the literary canon itself and the potential for perpetuating existing inequalities.
The challenge is amplified by the inherently fluid and contested nature of "African American literature." The definition itself is a subject of ongoing debate, with discussions about the relationship between race, identity, and literary production. Who qualifies as an "African American writer"? How do we account for the diverse experiences and perspectives within this broad category, including those of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and writers from different regional and socio-economic backgrounds? The anthology's choices regarding these matters are subject to critical scrutiny and necessitate ongoing dialogue.
The Evolving Landscape: Addressing Criticisms and Promoting Inclusivity
Over the years, the African American Literature Norton Anthology has faced criticism regarding its representation of diverse voices within the African American community. Critics have pointed to an overrepresentation of certain authors and genres, while others have lamented the exclusion of significant voices, especially those from marginalized communities within the African American experience. These criticisms underscore the need for constant reevaluation and revision, recognizing that the anthology is not a static entity but rather a living document reflecting the ongoing evolution of literary studies and critical discourse.
The subsequent editions of the anthology have attempted to address some of these concerns by incorporating a wider range of authors and perspectives. However, the ongoing conversation surrounding representation highlights the inherent complexities involved in compiling such a collection and the need for ongoing critical engagement.
The Impact and Legacy of the African American Literature Norton Anthology
Despite its limitations, the African American Literature Norton Anthology has had a profound impact on the teaching and study of African American literature. It has broadened access to a vast body of work, fostering critical discussions about race, identity, and the literary canon. It has become an indispensable resource for students, scholars, and anyone seeking to engage with this crucial aspect of American cultural history. The anthology's ongoing evolution reflects the dynamism of the field and the commitment to expanding representation and fostering more inclusive narratives. It serves as a valuable tool, but it is crucial to approach it with a critical lens, acknowledging both its strengths and weaknesses and engaging in ongoing dialogue about the ever-evolving landscape of African American literary studies.
Conclusion
The African American Literature Norton Anthology presents a complex and multifaceted case study in canon formation and representation. While providing invaluable access to a rich body of work and fostering vital conversations, it also highlights the inherent challenges and ongoing debates surrounding the construction of literary canons and the representation of diverse voices. Its ongoing revisions demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement and a recognition of the need for ongoing critical engagement. Ultimately, the anthology serves as a powerful tool for understanding and appreciating the contributions of African American writers, but only when approached with a critical and informed perspective.
FAQs
1. What are the main criticisms of the African American Literature Norton Anthology? Common criticisms include the uneven representation of various African American sub-groups, the potential for perpetuating established canons, and the omission of significant voices.
2. How does the anthology address the issue of representation? Later editions have attempted to include more diverse voices and perspectives, but the issue of adequate representation remains a topic of ongoing discussion.
3. What is the significance of the African American Literature Norton Anthology in the academic field? It's a central resource in African American literature courses and significantly influences how the field is studied and taught.
4. Who are some of the key authors featured in the anthology? The anthology features a wide array, including but not limited to: Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin.
5. How does the anthology reflect the changing understanding of African American identity? The anthology shows how understandings of identity have evolved, demonstrating changing social, political, and cultural contexts.
6. What are the different genres represented in the African American Literature Norton Anthology? The anthology includes novels, poems, essays, plays, short stories, speeches, and other forms of writing.
7. What are some of the key themes explored in the anthology? Common themes include race, slavery, freedom, identity, gender, sexuality, class, and the ongoing struggle for social justice.
8. How does the anthology contribute to the ongoing conversation about the literary canon? It challenges traditional conceptions of the canon and promotes the inclusion of previously marginalized voices.
9. Where can I find the African American Literature Norton Anthology? It's available at most bookstores, both online and brick-and-mortar, as well as academic libraries.
Related Articles
1. "The Evolution of the African American Literary Canon: A Critical Analysis of the Norton Anthology": This article examines the evolution of the anthology's selection criteria and how this reflects broader changes in literary theory and critical discourse.
2. "Representing Black Women in the Norton Anthology of African American Literature": A focused study examining the representation of women writers and their experiences within the anthology.
3. "The Role of the Norton Anthology in Shaping the Understanding of African American History": An exploration of how the anthology contributes to shaping historical understanding through literary interpretation.
4. "Comparing and Contrasting the Norton Anthology with other Anthologies of African American Literature": A comparative analysis evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the Norton Anthology in relation to other similar publications.
5. "The Impact of Critical Race Theory on the Norton Anthology of African American Literature": Analyzing how Critical Race Theory has influenced both the selection and interpretation of texts within the anthology.
6. "Teaching with the Norton Anthology of African American Literature: Best Practices and Pedagogical Approaches": This article provides guidance on effectively using the anthology in educational settings.
7. "The Reception of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature: Reviews and Critical Responses": A compilation of different reviews and critical responses, showing different perspectives.
8. "Exploring the Diverse Genres within the Norton Anthology of African American Literature": A detailed analysis of different genres, illustrating their contributions and significance.
9. "The Future of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature: Challenges and Opportunities": A forward-looking analysis discussing challenges and the opportunities for future editions.
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature Henry Louis Gates (Jr.), Valerie Smith, 2014 An exciting revision of the best-selling anthology for African American literary survey courses. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature Henry Louis Gates (Jr.), Valerie Smith, 2014 An exciting revision of the best-selling anthology for African American literary survey courses. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature Henry Louis Gates, Nellie Y. McKay, 2004 Welcomed on publication as brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was adopted at more than 1,275 colleges and universities worldwide. Now, the new Second Edition offers these highlights. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature , 1997 |
| african american literature norton anthology: Anthology of African American Literature Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 1997-10-10 |
| african american literature norton anthology: Bars Fight Lucy Terry Prince, 2020-10-01 Bars Fight, a ballad telling the tale of an ambush by Native Americans on two families in 1746 in a Massachusetts meadow, is the oldest known work by an African-American author. Passed on orally until it was recorded in Josiah Gilbert Holland’s History of Western Massachusetts in 1855, the ballad is a landmark in the history of literature that should be on every book lover’s shelves. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Half in Shadow Shanna Greene Benjamin, 2021-04-01 Nellie Y. McKay (1930–2006) was a pivotal figure in contemporary American letters. The author of several books, McKay is best known for coediting the canon-making with Henry Louis Gates Jr., which helped secure a place for the scholarly study of Black writing that had been ignored by white academia. However, there is more to McKay's life and legacy than her literary scholarship. After her passing, new details about McKay's life emerged, surprising everyone who knew her. Why did McKay choose to hide so many details of her past? Shanna Greene Benjamin examines McKay's path through the professoriate to learn about the strategies, sacrifices, and successes of contemporary Black women in the American academy. Benjamin shows that McKay's secrecy was a necessary tactic that a Black, working-class woman had to employ to succeed in the white-dominated space of the American English department. Using extensive archives and personal correspondence, Benjamin brings together McKay’s private life and public work to expand how we think about Black literary history and the place of Black women in American culture. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2011-06-08 This is a book of stories, writes Henry Louis Gates, and all might be described as 'narratives of ascent.' As some remarkable men talk about their lives, many perspectives on race and gender emerge. For the notion of the unitary black man, Gates argues, is as imaginary as the creature that the poet Wallace Stevens conjured in his poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. James Baldwin, Colin Powell, Harry Belafonte, Bill T. Jones, Louis Farrakhan, Anatole Broyard, Albert Murray -- all these men came from modest circumstances and all achieved preeminence. They are people, Gates writes, who have shaped the world as much as they were shaped by it, who gave as good as they got. Three are writers -- James Baldwin, who was once regarded as the intellectual spokesman for the black community; Anatole Broyard, who chose to hide his black heritage so as to be seen as a writer on his own terms; and Albert Murray, who rose to the pinnacle of literary criticism. There is the general-turned-political-figure Colin Powell, who discusses his interactions with three United States presidents; there is Harry Belafonte, the entertainer whose career has been distinct from his fervent activism; there is Bill T. Jones, dancer and choreographer, whose fierce courage and creativity have continued in the shadow of AIDS; and there is Louis Farrakhan, the controversial religious leader. These men and others speak of their lives with candor and intimacy, and what emerges from this portfolio of influential men is a strikingly varied and profound set of ideas about what it means to be a black man in America today. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of American Literature Nina Baym, 2003 Includes outstanding works of American poetry, prose, and fiction from the Colonial era to the present day. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of American Literature Baym, Nina, Levine, Robert S, 2011-12-31 The Eighth Edition features a diverse and balanced variety of works and thorough but judicious editorial apparatus throughout. The new edition also includes more complete works, much-requested new authors, 170 in-text images, new and re-thought contextual clusters, and other tools that help instructors teach the course they want to teach. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Sweetgum & Lightning Rodney Terich Leonard, 2021-02-15 An intersection of jazz and the written word: poems to be experienced and felt Sweetgum & Lightning lets us into an extraordinary poetic universe, shaped by a vernacular rooted in the language of self, one's origins, and music. In poems that are deeply sensual in nature, Rodney Terich Leonard considers gender and sexuality, art, poverty, and community. Imagery expands through unexpected lexical associations and rumination on the function of language; words take on new meaning and specificity, and the music of language becomes tantamount to the denotations of words themselves. Through extensive webs of connotation, Leonard's narratives achieve a sense of accuracy and intimacy. The nuanced lens of these poems is indicative of the honesty of expression at work in the collection-one that affirms the essentiality of perception to living and memory-- |
| african american literature norton anthology: Kindred Octavia E. Butler, 2004-02-01 From the New York Times bestselling author of Parable of the Sower and MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Nebula, and Hugo award winner The visionary time-travel classic whose Black female hero is pulled through time to face the horrors of American slavery and explores the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now. “I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.” Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present. Blazing the trail for neo-slavery narratives like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer, Butler takes one of speculative fiction’s oldest tropes and infuses it with lasting depth and power. Dana not only experiences the cruelties of slavery on her skin but also grimly learns to accept it as a condition of her own existence in the present. “Where stories about American slavery are often gratuitous, reducing its horror to explicit violence and brutality, Kindred is controlled and precise” (New York Times). “Reading Octavia Butler taught me to dream big, and I think it’s absolutely necessary that everybody have that freedom and that willingness to dream.” —N. K. Jemisin Developed for television by writer/executive producer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Watchmen), executive producers also include Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields (The Americans, The Patient), and Darren Aronofsky (The Whale). Janicza Bravo (Zola) is director and an executive producer of the pilot. Kindred stars Mallori Johnson, Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, and Gayle Rankin. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of American Literature Robert Steven Levine, 2017 This 9th edition of 'The Norton Anthology of American Literature' presents complete major works, balancing classic and newly emergent works |
| african american literature norton anthology: Jewish American Literature Jules Chametzky, 2001 A collection of Jewish-American literature written by various authors between 1656 and 1990. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature: Beginnings through the Harlem Renaissance. The vernacular tradition, part 1. Spirituals ; Secular rhymes and songs ; Ballads ; Work songs ; The blues ; Folktales Henry Louis Gates (Jr.), Valerie A. Smith, 2014 Collaborating on The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay have compiled what may be the definitive collection of its kind. Organized chronologically, the massive work gathers writings from six periods of black history: slavery and freedom; Reconstruction; the Harlem Renaissance; Realism, Naturalism and Modernism; the Black Arts Movement and the period since the 1970s. The work begins with the vernacular tradition of spirituals, gospel and the blues; continues through work songs, jazz and rap; ranges through sermons and folktales; and embraces letters and journals, poetry, short fiction, novels, autobiography and drama. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Earliest African American Literatures Zachary McLeod Hutchins, Cassander L. Smith, 2021-12-16 With the publication of the 1619 Project by The New York Times in 2019, a growing number of Americans have become aware that Africans arrived in North America before the Pilgrims. Yet the stories of these Africans and their first descendants remain ephemeral and inaccessible for both the general public and educators. This groundbreaking collection of thirty-eight biographical and autobiographical texts chronicles the lives of literary black Africans in British colonial America from 1643 to 1760 and offers new strategies for identifying and interpreting the presence of black Africans in this early period. Brief introductions preceding each text provide historical context and genre-specific interpretive prompts to foreground their significance. Included here are transcriptions from manuscript sources and colonial newspapers as well as forgotten texts. The Earliest African American Literatures will change the way that students and scholars conceive of early American literature and the role of black Africans in the formation of that literature. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature: Realism, nautralism, modernism to the present. The vernacular tradition, part 2. Gospel ; Songs of social change ; Jazz ; Rhythm and blues ; Hip-hop ; Sermons and prayers Henry Louis Gates (Jr.), Valerie Smith, 2014 Collaborating on The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay have compiled what may be the definitive collection of its kind. Organized chronologically, the massive work gathers writings from six periods of black history: slavery and freedom; Reconstruction; the Harlem Renaissance; Realism, Naturalism and Modernism; the Black Arts Movement and the period since the 1970s. The work begins with the vernacular tradition of spirituals, gospel and the blues; continues through work songs, jazz and rap; ranges through sermons and folktales; and embraces letters and journals, poetry, short fiction, novels, autobiography and drama. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Cambridge History of African American Literature Maryemma Graham, Jerry Washington Ward, 2011-02-03 A major new history of the literary traditions, oral and print, of African-descended peoples in the United States. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, Trudier Harris, 2001-02-15 A breathtaking achievement, this Concise Companion is a suitable crown to the astonishing production in African American literature and criticism that has swept over American literary studies in the last two decades. It offers an enormous range of writers-from Sojourner Truth to Frederick Douglass, from Zora Neale Hurston to Ralph Ellison, and from Toni Morrison to August Wilson. It contains entries on major works (including synopses of novels), such as Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Richard Wright's Native Son, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. It also incorporates information on literary characters such as Bigger Thomas, Coffin Ed Johnson, Kunta Kinte, Sula Peace, as well as on character types such as Aunt Jemima, Brer Rabbit, John Henry, Stackolee, and the trickster. Icons of black culture are addressed, including vivid details about the lives of Muhammad Ali, John Coltrane, Marcus Garvey, Jackie Robinson, John Brown, and Harriet Tubman. Here, too, are general articles on poetry, fiction, and drama; on autobiography, slave narratives, Sunday School literature, and oratory; as well as on a wide spectrum of related topics. Compact yet thorough, this handy volume gathers works from a vast array of sources--from the black periodical press to women's clubs--making it one of the most substantial guides available on the growing, exciting world of African American literature. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Lottery Shirley Jackson, 2008 A seemingly ordinary village participates in a yearly lottery to determine a sacrificial victim. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Sula Toni Morrison, 2002-04-05 From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner: Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. This brilliantly imagined novel brings us the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Nel and Sula's devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Black Voices Various, 2001-04-01 “If you don’t know my name, you don’t know your own.”—James Baldwin An anthology of African-American literature featuring contributions from some of the most prominent Black and African-American authors of our time, including James Baldwin, Arna Bontemps, Gwendolyn Brooks, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Leroi Jones, Margaret Walker, Richard Wright, Malcom X, and many more. Featuring fiction, poetry, autobiography, and literary criticism, Black Voices captures the diverse and powerful words of a literary explosion, the ramifications of which can be seen and heard in the works of today’s African-American artists. A comprehensive and impressive primer, this anthology presents some of the greatest and most enduring work born out of the African-American experience in the United States. Contributors Also Include: Sterling A. Brown Charles W. Chesnutt John Henrik Clarke Countee Cullen Frederick Douglass Paul Laurence Dunbar James Weldon Johnson Naomi Long Madgett Paule Marshall Clarence Major Claude McKay Ann Petry Dudley Randall J. Saunders Redding Jean Toomer Darwin T. Turner Lerone Bennett, Jr. Frank London Brown Arthur P. Davis Frank Marshall Davis Owen Dodson Mari Evans Rudolph Fisher Dan Georgakas Robert Hayden Frank Horne Blyden Jackson Lance Jeffers Fenton Johnson George E. Kent Alain Locke Diane Oliver Stanley Sanders Richard G. Stern Sterling Stuckey Melvin B. Tolson |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry Howard Rambsy, 2013-08-29 Devoted chiefly to the period from 1965-1976. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe, 1994-09-01 “A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama “African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe.” —Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities. |
| african american literature norton anthology: On the Bus with Rosa Parks: Poems Rita Dove, 2000-04-17 A dazzling new collection by the former Poet Laureate of the United States. In these brilliant poems, Rita Dove treats us to a panoply of human endeavor, shot through with the electrifying jazz of her lyric elegance. From the opening sequence, Cameos, to the civil rights struggle of the final sequence, she explores the intersection of individual fate and history. |
| african american literature norton anthology: A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara, 2016-01-26 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Literature of the American South William L. Andrews, 1997-10-01 Complete with historical introductions, author headnotes, annotations, and bibliographies, a groundbreaking anthology encompasses all genres of literary writing and ranges from slave narratives to William Faulkner to the memoirs of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Original. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Performing Blackness Kimberley W. Benston, 2013-04-15 Performing Blackness offers a challenging interpretation of black cultural expression since the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Exploring drama, music, poetry, sermons, and criticism, Benston offers an exciting meditation on modern black performance's role in realising African-American aspirations for autonomy and authority. Artists covered include: * John Coltrane * Ntozake Shange * Ed Bullins * Amiri Baraka * Adrienne Kennedy * Michael Harper. Performing Blackness is an exciting contribution to the ongoing debate about the vitality and importance of black culture. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Geographies of African American Short Fiction Kenton Rambsy, 2022-03-25 Perhaps the brevity of short fiction accounts for the relatively scant attention devoted to it by scholars, who have historically concentrated on longer prose narratives. The Geographies of African American Short Fiction seeks to fill this gap by analyzing the ways African American short story writers plotted a diverse range of characters across multiple locations—small towns, a famous metropolis, city sidewalks, a rural wooded area, apartment buildings, a pond, a general store, a prison, and more. In the process, these writers highlighted the extents to which places and spaces shaped or situated racial representations. Presenting African American short story writers as cultural cartographers, author Kenton Rambsy documents the variety of geographical references within their short stories to show how these authors make cultural spaces integral to their artwork and inscribe their stories with layered and resonant social histories. The history of these short stories also documents the circulation of compositions across dozens of literary collections for nearly a century. Anthology editors solidified the significance of a core group of short story authors including James Baldwin, Toni Cade Bambara, Charles Chesnutt, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright. Using quantitative information and an extensive literary dataset, The Geographies of African American Short Fiction explores how editorial practices shaped the canon of African American short fiction. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien, 2009-10-13 A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Worlds Together, Worlds Apart Concise One-Volume, 2nd Edition + Reg Card Elizabeth Pollard, Clifford D. Rosenberg, Robert L. Tignor, Jeremy Adelman, Stephen Aron, Peter Brown, Benjamin Elman, Stephen Kotkin, Xinru Liu, Suzanne Marchand, Holly Pittman, Gyan Prakash, Brent Shaw, Michael Tsin, 2019 A truly global approach to world history, Worlds Together, Worlds Apart is organized around major world history stories and themes: the emergence of cities, the building of the Silk Road, the spread of major religions, the spread of the Black Death, the Age of Exploration, alternatives to nineteenth-century capitalism, the rise of modern nation-states and empires, and others ... The authors have refreshed throughout coverage of the environment in addition to cutting edge scholarship, designed to help students think critically, master content and make connections across time and place.--Provided by publisher. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Resistance and Reformation in Nineteenth-Century African-American Literature John Ernest, 2011-08-19 |
| african american literature norton anthology: Passing Nella Larsen, 2022 Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen (1891 –1964) published just two novels and three short stories in her lifetime, but achieved lasting literary acclaim. Her classic novel Passing first appeared in 1926. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Black Romantic Revolution Matt Sandler, 2020-09-08 The prophetic poetry of slavery and its abolition During the pitched battle over slavery in the United States, Black writers—enslaved and free—allied themselves with the cause of abolition and used their art to advocate for emancipation and to envision the end of slavery as a world-historical moment of possibility. These Black writers borrowed from the European tradition of Romanticism—lyric poetry, prophetic visions--to write, speak, and sing their hopes for what freedom might mean. At the same time, they voiced anxieties about the expansion of global capital and US imperial power in the aftermath of slavery. They also focused on the ramifications of slavery's sexual violence. Authors like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, George Moses Horton, Albery Allson Whitman, and Joshua McCarter Simpson conceived the Civil War as a revolutionary upheaval on par with Europe's stormy Age of Revolutions. The Black Romantic Revolution proposes that the Black Romantics' cultural innovations have shaped Black radical culture to this day, from the blues and hip hop to Black nationalism and Black feminism. Their expressions of love and rage, grief and determination, dreams and nightmares, still echo into our present. |
| african american literature norton anthology: What is African American Literature? Margo N. Crawford, 2021-01-27 After Kenneth W. Warren's What Was African American Literature?, Margo N. Crawford delivers What is African American Literature? The idea of African American literature may be much more than literature written by authors who identify as Black. What is African American Literature? focuses on feeling as form in order to show that African American literature is an archive of feelings, a tradition of the tension between uncontainable black affect and rigid historical structure. Margo N. Crawford argues that textual production of affect (such as blush, vibration, shiver, twitch, and wink) reveals that African American literature keeps reimagining a black collective nervous system. Crawford foregrounds the idea of African American literature and uncovers the black feeling world co-created by writers and readers. Rejecting the notion that there are no formal lines separating African American literature and a broader American literary tradition, Crawford contends that the distinguishing feature of African American literature is a moodscape that is as stable as electricity. Presenting a fresh perspective on the affective atmosphere of African American literature, this compelling text frames central questions around the idea of African American literature, shows the limits of historicism in explaining the mood of African American literature and addresses textual production in the creation of the African American literary tradition. Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Manifestos series, What is African American Literature? is a significant addition to scholarship in the field. Professors and students of American literature, African American literature, and Black Studies will find this book an invaluable source of fresh perspectives and new insights on America's black literary tradition. |
| african american literature norton anthology: A History of African American Poetry Lauri Ramey, 2019-03-21 Offers a critical history of African American poetry from the transatlantic slave trade to present day hip-hop. |
| african american literature norton anthology: The African Americans Henry Louis Gates (Jr.), Donald Yacovone, 2013 Chronicles five hundred years of African-American history from the origins of slavery on the African continent through Barack Obama's second presidential term, examining contributing political and cultural events. |
| african american literature norton anthology: African American Literature William L. Andrews, 1992 |
| african american literature norton anthology: The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction Richard Bausch, Ronald Verlin Cassill, 2006-01 The classroom standard for readers and aspiring writers of fiction, The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction offers the most comprehensive, engaging selection of classic and contemporary stories in the field. |
| african american literature norton anthology: Comparative American Identities Hortense J. Spillers, 1991 Maps out the different cultural identities that have emerged in the New World and also deals with related questions and problems that have arisen. |
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