Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Originally published in 1984. The Sage in Harlem establishes H. L. Mencken as a catalyst for the blossoming of black literary culture in the 1920s and chronicles the intensely productive exchange of ideas between Mencken and two generations of black writers: the Old Guard who pioneered the Harlem Renaissance and the Young Wits who sought to reshape it a decade later. From his readings of unpublished letters and articles from black publications of the time, Charles Scruggs argues that black writers saw usefulness in Mencken's critique of American culture, his advocacy of literary realism, and his satire of America. They understood that realism could free them from the pernicious stereotypes that had hounded past efforts at honest portraiture, and that satire could be the means whereby the white man might be paid back in his own coin. Scruggs contends that the content of Mencken's observations, whether ludicrously narrow or dazzlingly astute, was of secondary importance to the Harlem intellectuals. It was the honesty, precision, and fearlessness of his expression that proved irresistible to a generation of artists desperate to be taken seriously. The writers of the Harlem Renaissance turned to Mencken as an uncompromising-and uncondescending-commentator whose criticisms were informed by deep interest in African American life but guided by the same standards he applied to all literature, whatever its source. The Sage in Harlem demonstrates how Mencken, through the example of his own work, his power as editor of the American Mercury, and his dedication to literary quality, was able to nurture the developing talents of black authors from James Weldon Johnson to Richard Wright.

American literature --- African American authors. --- Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), --- Contemporaries. --- African American literature (English) --- Black literature (American) --- Negro literature --- Afro-American authors --- Negro authors --- Literature: history & criticism

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-Prize-winning 2016 novel, was widely praised for articulating the violence of chattel slavery and its aftermath. In contrast, his earlier novels were repeatedly criticized for not taking »race« seriously enough. Marlon Lieber argues that critics have often relied on a substantialist understanding of »race« and treated it as a cause rather than an effect of social relations of domination. Drawing on the relational sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, he provides readings of Whitehead's first six novels and their sophisticated understanding of the relation between late capitalist social structures and processes of racial classification which durably affect the disposition of individuals to act and think.

LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General. --- African American Literature. --- America. --- Colson Whitehead. --- Literary Studies. --- Literature. --- Pierre Bourdieu. --- Postcolonialism. --- Race and Racism. --- Racism. --- Sociology. --- Social theory --- Social sciences

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

A 2008 cover of The New Yorker featured a much-discussed Black Power parody of Michelle and Barack Obama. The image put a spotlight on how easy it is to flatten the Black Power movement as we imagine new types of blackness. Margo Natalie Crawford argues that we have misread the Black Arts Movement's call for blackness. We have failed to see the movement's anticipation of the 'new black' and 'post-black.' 'Black Post-Blackness' compares the black avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s Black Arts Movement with the most innovative spins of 21st century black aesthetics. Crawford zooms in on the 1970s second wave of the Black Arts Movement and shows the connections between this final wave of the Black Arts movement and the early years of 21st century black aesthetics.

Black nationalism. --- Black separatism --- Nationalism --- Nationalism, Black --- Separatism, Black --- Black power --- Blacks --- Politics and government --- Race identity --- Black people --- African-American literature and culture --- Expanding and exploding the boundaries

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

"This anthology presents underappreciated works by African Americans active throughout the nineteenth century. Readers will find familiar names in this anthology, such as Douglass, Wells Brown, Jacobs, and Du Bois, but readers will also be introduced to lesser known and even unknown African Americans worthy of discussion, such as Solomon G. Brown, H. Cordelia Ray, and T. Thomas Fortune. Mance's intention for this volume is to offer an alternative to the Norton and Houghton Mifflin anthologies that emphasize only the canonical works of African American literature in the 19th century and to introduce students--and even professors--to a variety of writings, from poetry to journalism, by African Americans who have yet to receive their due"-- "Despite important recovery and authentication efforts during the last twenty-five years, the vast majority of nineteenth-century African American writers and their work remain unknown to today's readers. Moreover, the most widely used anthologies of black writing have established a canon based largely on current interests and priorities. Seeking to establish a broader perspective, this collection brings together a wealth of autobiographical writings, fiction, poetry, speeches, sermons, essays, and journalism that better portrays the intellectual and cultural debates, social and political struggles, and community publications and institutions that nurtured black writers from the early 1800s to the eve of the Harlem Renaissance. As editor Ajuan Mance notes, previous collections have focused mainly on writing that found a significant audience among white readers. Consequently, authors whose work appeared in African American-owned publications for a primarily black audience--such as Solomon G. Brown, Henrietta Cordelia Ray, and T. Thomas Fortune--have faded from memory. Even figures as celebrated as Frederick Douglass and Paul Laurence Dunbar are today much better known for their "cross-racial" writings than for the larger bodies of work they produced for a mostly African American readership. There has also been a tendency in modern canon making, especially in the genre of autobiography, to stress antebellum writing rather than writings produced after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Similarly, religious writings--despite the centrality of the church in the everyday lives of black readers and the interconnectedness of black spiritual and intellectual life--have not received the emphasis they deserve. Filling those critical gaps with a selection of 143 works by 65 writers, Before Harlem presents as never before an in-depth picture of the literary, aesthetic, and intellectual landscape of nineteenth-century African America and will be a valuable resource for a new generation of readers. "--

LITERARY CRITICISM / Reference. --- LITERARY CRITICISM / American / African American. --- African Americans --- American literature --- African American literature (English) --- Black literature (American) --- Negro literature --- African American authors. --- Afro-American authors --- Negro authors

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In Thinking Through Crisis, James Edward Ford III examines the works of Richard Wright, Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes during the 1930s in order to articulate a materialist theory of trauma. Ford highlights the dark proletariat’s emergence from the multitude apposite to white supremacist agendas. In these works, Ford argues, proletarian, modernist, and surrealist aesthetics transform fugitive slaves, sharecroppers, leased convicts, levee workers, and activist intellectuals into protagonists of anti-racist and anti-capitalist movements in the United States.Thinking Through Crisis intervenes in debates on the 1930s, radical subjectivity, and states of emergency. It will be of interest to scholars of American literature, African American literature, proletarian literature, black studies, trauma theory, and political theory.

Race discrimination in literature. --- Depressions in literature. --- SOCIAL SCIENCE --- American literature --- English literature --- Agrarians (Group of writers) --- Ethnic Studies --- African American Studies. --- Black authors --- History and criticism. --- African American Literature. --- Black Studies. --- Crisis. --- Great Depression. --- Proletariat. --- Trauma Theory.