African American Literature

1
African American Literature

• History and Current Trends

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African American Literature

• The first writings by blacks in America was
  autobiographical and became known as the Slave
  Narrative
• Three themes developed in early African American
  writings around the issue of slavery
  accommodation, protest, and escape

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African American Literature

• Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa)
• (c. 1745-c. 1797) Eqiano was the first black in
  America to write an autobiography. In The
  Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah
  Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789)
  Equiano gives an account of his native land (he
  was an Ibo from Niger) and the horrors of his
  captivity and enslavement in the West Indies.

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African American Literature

• Jupiter Hammon (c. 1720-c. 1800) Poet Jupiter
  Hammon, a slave on Long Island, New York, is
  remembered for his religious poems as well as for
  An Address to the Negroes of the State of New
  York (1787), in which he advocated freeing
  children of slaves instead of condemning them to
  hereditary slavery. His poem "An Evening Thought"
  was the first poem published by a black male in
  America.

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African American Literature

• Lucy Terry (1730-1821)
• Thought to be the author of the oldest piece of
  African-American literature, Bars Fight a poem
  written in 1746, about an Indian raid on settlers
  in Massachusetts. It was not published until
  1855.

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African American Literature

• Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897)
• Her slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a
  Slave Girl (1861) is the most comprehensive
  biography of an African American woman prior to
  the Civil War. In it she recounts her life in
  slavery in the context of family relationships
  reshaping the slave narrative genre to include
  womens experiences.

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African American Literature

• Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)
• The first African-American and the second woman
  to publish a book in the colonies, she is one of
  the best known early black poets her work was
  praised by leaders of the American Revolution,
  including George Washington. She is one of the
  first writers to use an epistolary style (in the
  form of letters).

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African American Literature

• Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
• Orator, journalist, abolitionist, statesman,
  autobiographer and author of Narrative of the
  Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,
  Written by Himself (1845), the most influential
  African American text of his era. His writing and
  life created a model of self-hood of such moral
  and political authority, he was later viewed as a
  cultural hero.

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African American LiteraturePost-slavery Era

• W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963)
• One of the founders of the NAACP, DuBois
  published the highly influential The Souls of
  Black Folk (1903) which created a black
  intellectual and artistic consciousness. He was
  an essayist, novelist, academic and the
  preeminent African American scholar-intellectual
  of his time.

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African American LiteraturePost-slavery Era

• Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) autobiographer,
  essayist, educator
• James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) poet, essayist,
  editor, educator
• Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) poet

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African American LiteratureThe Harlem Renaissance

• The artistic and socio-cultural awakening of
  African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s
• It was centered around the vibrant African
  American community in Harlem, New York, but had
  far-reaching influence in art, music, literature
  and social thought.
• The interplay of art and race, and the aesthetic
  criteria for evaluating black writing are some of
  the intellectual legacies of the Harlem
  Renaissance.

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African American LiteratureThe Harlem Renaissance

• Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
• Poet, playwright, essayist, autobiographer, and
  childrens book author, Hughes came to attention
  in 1922 in the anthology The Book of American
  Negro Poetry. His most famous poem, The Negro
  Speaks of Rivers was written in his teens.

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African American LiteratureThe Harlem Renaissance

• Zora Neal Hurston (1891-1960)
• Novelist, anthropologist, folklorist, Hurston
  left New York to return to hometown in Florida in
  1927. She began collecting folktales, work songs,
  spirituals and sermons to document the black
  experience. In 1935 she published Mules and Men,
  the first volume of black American folklore. Her
  finest novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
  portrays the life and journey of a strong female
  character set in the rural South.

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African American LiteratureThe Harlem Renaissance

• Alain Locke (1886-1954) essayist, editor
• Claude McKay (1889-1948) poet
• Jean Toomer (1894-1967) poet
• Anne Spencer (1882-1975) poet

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African American LiteratureRealism, Modernism,
Naturalism

• The 1940s -1960s was an era of social change for
  African Americans. Influences included the Second
  World War, the Second Great Migration, world-wide
  social movements such as communism and Marxism,
  and early civil rights legislation which opened
  up schools and jobs for many African Americans.
• Urban realism urban sensibility defines much of
  the literature of this era.

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African American LiteratureRealism, Modernism,
Naturalism

• Richard Wright (1908-1960) novelist,
  autobiographer, political commentator. His
  influential and critically acclaimed novel Native
  Son (1940) tells the story of a black man
  struggling for acceptance in Chicago. It garnered
  him financial success, international fame and his
  outspoken writing style influenced a generation
  of black writers.

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African American LiteratureRealism, Modernism,
Naturalism

• Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) novelist, essayist,
  scholar, artist, Ellisons important novel
  Invisible Man (1952) is the story of a nameless
  black man who learns to assert himself. The
  Invisible Man is part of the cannon of 20th
  Century American literature, though Ellisons
  only major published work.

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African American LiteratureRealism, Modernism,
Naturalism

• Margaret Walker (1915-1998) poet, novelist,
  educator (For My People Jubilee)
• Gwendolyn Brooks (1917- 2000) poet, novelist,
  childrens writer. Her second book of poetry,
  Annie Allen won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950.
• James Baldwin (1924-1987) novelist, essayist,
  playwright, filmmaker, lecturer. The story of his
  painful childhood is the subject of his first
  novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain
• Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) her award-winning
  play, A Raison in the Sun is a classic of the
  American theater.

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African American LiteratureThe Black Arts
Movement

• Social and political forces in the black
  community in the 1960s and 1970s sought to change
  the way African Americans were defined and
  treated. The Black Arts Movement sought to change
  how blacks were represented and portrayed in
  literature and the arts.
• The Black Arts Movement was anchored in political
  change and the concept that the artist is a part
  of his or her community and their work should
  speak to the needs and aspirations of that
  community.

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African American LiteratureThe Black Arts
Movement

• Malcolm X (1925-1965) orator and autobiographer.
  His Autobiography, published after his death, is
  a major African American literary work of the
  20th Century. It was co-written with author Alex
  Haley.
• Amiri Baraka (1934- ) poet, playwright,
  activist and lecturer Baraka influenced later
  poets to write from the contemporary African
  American experience.
• Sonia Sanchez (1934- ), poet, essayist,
  playwright and educator, her writing reflects her
  personal growth to her commitment to make a more
  just world
• Nikki Giovanni (1943- ) poet, essayist,
  lecturer this prolific poet, sometimes referred
  to as the peoples poet for her down-to-earth
  style has written much about female identity and
  autonomy.

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African American LiteratureThe 1970s to the
Present

• African American literature began to enter the
  mainstream of publishing and be read by black and
  white audiences.
• African American literature began to be defined
  and analyzed.
• Black women began to achieve success as
  novelists, poets, writers and artists.

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African American LiteratureThe 1970s to the
Present

• Toni Morrison (1931- ) editor, novelist,
  academic, Morrison wrote richly woven stories
  often with strong female characters. The Bluest
  Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977),
  Tar Baby (1981) are some of her great novels.
  Beloved (1988) won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction
  in 1988. She is the first African American women
  to win the Nobel Prize for Literature ( ).

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African American LiteratureThe 1970s to the
Present

• Alice Walker (1944- ) novelist and poet,
  Walkers best known work, The Color Purple (1982)
  won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982. Its the story of
  two sisters who through separation and trials
  continue to support and strengthen each other.
• Maya Angelou (1928- ) poet, playwright,
  performer and autobiographer. I Know Why the
  Caged Bird Sings (1970) her serial autobiography
  is in the pantheon of modern American literature.

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African American LiteratureThe 1970s to the
Present

• Alex Haley (1921-1992) journalist and novelist
  whos Roots (1976) about his family history
  traced back to West Africa became a television
  event in 1977 and sparked a popular interest and
  pride in African American history and ancestry.
  He also co-wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

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African American LiteratureThe 1970s to the
Present

• Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1995) novelist, essayist,
  filmmaker, her short story collections, Gorilla,
  My Love (1972) and her novel, The Salt Eaters
  (1980) demonstrate her commitment to social
  issues.
• Ishmael Reed (1938- ) essayist, poet, novelist,
  and publisher, Reeds cultural activism has made
  his published work hard to define. Mumbo Jumbo
  (1972) is considered his masterpiece.

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African American LiteratureThe 1970s to the
Present

• August Wilson (1945-2006) playwright and poet
  best known for his cycle of 10 plays about black
  life in America in the 20th Century. He won the
  Pulitzer Prize for drama for Fences (1987) and
  
• Rita Dove (1952- ) poet, novelist, educator,
  Dove won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987
  for Thomas and Beulah (1986). She was Poet
  Laureate of the United States from 1992-1994.

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African American LiteratureThe Contemporary Scene

• African American writers have entered the
  mainstream of American readership and publish in
  many genres romance, mystery, science fiction
  and literary fiction.
• While issues of identity and race are still
  prominent, the range of human issues are also
  topics of contemporary African American
  literature.

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African American LiteratureThe Contemporary Scene

• Edward P. Jones (1951 ) won the Pulitzer
  Prize in 2004 for The Known World (2004) about a
  black slaveholder in the antebellum South.
• Stephen L. Carter (1954- ), essayist, legal
  scholar, novelist. The Emperor of Ocean Park and
  New England White look at the black middle class.
• Walter Mosley (1952- ), popular novelist known
  for crime fiction such as Devil in a Blue Dress
  (1990).
• Terry McMillan (1951- ) professor, author,
  editor McMillans work, such as Waiting to Exhale
  (1992) and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1995)
  often center around contemporary black family
  life and loves.

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African American LiteratureThe Contemporary Scene

• Edwidge Danticat (1969- ) author, educator.
  Her Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) was brought to
  national attention as an Oprah book. Brother,
  Im Dying (2007) won the National Book Critics
  Circle Award in 2008.
• ZZ Packer (1973- ) lecturer, short story
  writer. Her short story collection Drinking
  Coffee Elsewhere (2003) received wide acclaim.
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977- ) Nigerian-born
  writer whos novel about the Biafran war, Half a
  Yellow Sun (2006) has placed her firmly on the
  American and international literary scene.

30
Here are some great web sites for further
research http//www.africanamericanhistorymonth.g
ov/
31
The American Memory Project Library of Congress
http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
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Slave Narrative Projects from the Library of
Congress http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/
voices/
33
North American Slave Narratives from the
Documenting the American South Project at the
University of North Carolina http//docsouth.unc.
edu/neh/texts.html
34
Digital Library on American Slavery, U North
Carolina at Greensboro http//library.uncg.edu/sl
avery/index.aspx?s3
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Ex Slave Narratives (Library of Congress
Digitizes Slave Narratives)http//memory.loc.gov
/ammem/awhhtml/awafc11/ex-slave.html
36
Faces and Voices (Library of Congress)
http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/vfs
sp.html
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Other resources from the Library of Congress
http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/vfs
resource.html
38
American Slave Narratives from the University of
Virginias Crossroads Project http//xroads.virgi
nia.edu/hyper/wpa/wpahome.html
39
Slave Narratives with links to Full Text!
http//afroamhistory.about.com/od/slavenarratives/
Slave_Narratives.htm
40
The Slave Narrative Project from Washington State
University http//www.wsu.edu/campbelld/amlit/sl
ave.htm
41
American Treasures from the Library of Congress
http//www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr004.html
42
African American Texts at University of Virginia
E-Text Project http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/eboo
ks/subjects/subjects-afam.html
43
Can also look for full text of many books through
this site http//demo.openlibrary.org
44
More information on American Authors may be found
at http//www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/matsuoka/AmeLi
t.html1920
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And, this site on American Literature
http//guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl413/
sites.htm
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And, finally full text literatures collections,
courtesy of the Rutgers University
Librarieshttp//www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr
_gateway/research_guides/eng_lit/eng_full-text_lit
.shtml