The Concise Oxford Companion to African American LiteratureWilliam L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, Trudier Harris 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. |
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African Ameri African American literature African American women African American writers Afro-American Amiri Baraka anthology artistic autobiography Award Baldwin Baraka Black American Black Arts Black Arts movement Black Women born Brown career characters Chicago City civil rights collection College color critics cultural Davis Douglass drama early editor Ellison essays experience father gender Gwendolyn Brooks Harlem Renaissance Hurston James James Baldwin jazz John Johnson Journal Langston Hughes literary lives Malcolm X Mary mother movement narrator National Negro novel novelist play playwright poems poet poetic poetry political Professor of English published race racial racism readers Review Richard Wright Robert sexual short stories slavery social South southern Studies Thadious theater themes tion Toni Morrison tradition Trudier Harris University voice W. E. B. Du Bois Walker Washington William woman Women Writers Wright wrote York young Zora Neale Hurston