Delving into the Norton Anthology of African American Literature: A Comprehensive Guide

The Norton Anthology of African American Literature stands as a monumental achievement, a sprawling tapestry woven from centuries of voices, experiences, and artistic expression. This comprehensive guide will explore its significance, its contents, its impact, and its ongoing relevance in understanding American history and culture. We'll dissect its structure, examine its critical reception, and consider its role in shaping the literary canon. Prepare to embark on a journey through a rich and complex literary landscape.

The Genesis and Scope of the Anthology

First published in 1997, and subsequently updated in 2014, the Norton Anthology of African American Literature is more than just a collection of writings; it’s a carefully curated exploration of African American literary history. Editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay assembled a breathtaking array of works, spanning centuries and encompassing a diverse range of genres, from poetry and short stories to essays, drama, and speeches. This wasn’t simply a matter of gathering texts; it was a conscious effort to reshape the narrative of American literature, highlighting the significant, often overlooked, contributions of African American writers. The anthology's scope extends from the earliest known writings by African Americans to contemporary works, providing a chronological journey through the evolution of African American literary expression.

The Chronological Approach and its Significance

The chronological arrangement of the anthology is crucial to understanding its impact. By presenting the works in their historical context, readers gain a deeper appreciation for the social, political, and cultural forces that shaped the writing. This chronological journey reveals how literary styles, themes, and concerns evolved in response to historical events like slavery, emancipation, the Civil Rights Movement, and beyond. It's a powerful testament to the resilience and adaptability of the African American literary voice.

Genre Diversity and Authorial Representation

The anthology boasts remarkable diversity in terms of genre and authorial representation. It showcases the breadth and depth of African American literary talent, featuring established literary giants alongside lesser-known but equally important voices. This inclusion is intentional, aiming to dismantle the monolithic image of African American literature and present a multifaceted reality. Readers will encounter a wide spectrum of perspectives, styles, and experiences, offering a richer and more nuanced understanding of the community it represents.

Critical Reception and Lasting Impact

Since its initial publication, the Norton Anthology of African American Literature has received both widespread acclaim and some scholarly debate. While many praise its comprehensive scope and its contribution to a more inclusive literary canon, others have pointed to potential biases in selection and interpretation. These debates highlight the inherent challenges in compiling such a vast and significant collection, showcasing the complexities of creating a representative anthology. Nonetheless, its impact on literary studies, classrooms, and the broader cultural landscape is undeniable.

Its Influence on Literary Education

The anthology has become a cornerstone of African American literature courses across the nation and internationally. Its influence on literary education is profound, shaping the way students and scholars understand American literature and its diverse voices. By making these works readily accessible, it has democratized access to this vital body of literature, allowing a wider audience to engage with its richness and complexity.

Shaping the Narrative of American History

Beyond its academic significance, the Norton Anthology of African American Literature plays a crucial role in shaping our understanding of American history itself. The writings contained within offer powerful firsthand accounts of slavery, racism, oppression, and the ongoing struggle for equality. These narratives challenge dominant historical narratives, offering alternative perspectives and illuminating the experiences of a marginalized community.

Beyond the Pages: Engaging with the Anthology

The Norton Anthology of African American Literature is not simply a collection of texts to be passively consumed; it's a dynamic resource to be actively engaged with. Students and readers are encouraged to explore the various critical essays and introductions included in the anthology, enriching their understanding of the historical context and literary significance of the works. Further research into the lives and works of the individual authors will further deepen one's appreciation of this remarkable collection.

Conclusion

The Norton Anthology of African American Literature is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand the depth, breadth, and complexity of African American literary tradition. Its careful curation, chronological approach, and commitment to inclusivity make it a vital contribution to the literary landscape. It’s a testament to the power of literature to illuminate history, challenge assumptions, and foster understanding across cultures. By engaging with this anthology, readers not only deepen their literary appreciation but also gain valuable insights into the ongoing conversation about race, identity, and the American experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What makes the Norton Anthology of African American Literature unique?

A1: Its uniqueness lies in its comprehensive scope, covering centuries of writing and representing a wide range of genres and authors. The chronological organization and inclusion of critical essays provide crucial context for understanding the evolution of African American literary expression.

Q2: Is this anthology suitable for beginners?

A2: Yes, while it's a comprehensive work, the anthology's structure and inclusion of introductory materials make it accessible to readers of all levels. Beginners can start with specific authors or time periods that interest them.

Q3: Are there any criticisms of the anthology?

A3: Some critics have questioned the selection process and potential biases in representation. These debates highlight the inherent challenges of compiling such a vast and complex collection while striving for comprehensive representation.

Q4: Where can I purchase the Norton Anthology of African American Literature?

A4: The anthology is widely available at bookstores, both online (Amazon, Barnes & Noble) and in physical locations. You can also find used copies at a lower price.

Q5: How can I use this anthology for research?

A5: The anthology serves as a superb primary source for research on African American literature, history, and culture. Its comprehensive nature and extensive notes allow for in-depth study and analysis of individual works and their historical context.


  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature , 1997
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: Anthology of African American Literature Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 1997-10-10
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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--
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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
  norton anthology of african american literature: The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry Howard Rambsy, 2013-08-29 Devoted chiefly to the period from 1965-1976.
  norton anthology of african american literature: The Lottery Shirley Jackson, 2008 A seemingly ordinary village participates in a yearly lottery to determine a sacrificial victim.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: What Was African American Literature? Kenneth W. Warren, 2011-05-03 African American literature is over. With this provocative claim Kenneth Warren sets out to identify a distinctly African American literature—and to change the terms with which we discuss it. Rather than contest other definitions, Warren makes a clear and compelling case for understanding African American literature as creative and critical work written by black Americans within and against the strictures of Jim Crow America. Within these parameters, his book outlines protocols of reading that best make sense of the literary works produced by African American writers and critics over the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. In Warren’s view, African American literature begged the question: what would happen to this literature if and when Jim Crow was finally overthrown? Thus, imagining a world without African American literature was essential to that literature. In support of this point, Warren focuses on three moments in the history of Phylon, an important journal of African American culture. In the dialogues Phylon documents, the question of whether race would disappear as an organizing literary category emerges as shared ground for critical and literary practice. Warren also points out that while scholarship by black Americans has always been the province of a petit bourgeois elite, the strictures of Jim Crow enlisted these writers in a politics that served the race as a whole. Finally, Warren’s work sheds light on the current moment in which advocates of African American solidarity insist on a past that is more productively put behind us.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: Invisible Man Ralph Ellison, 2014 The invisible man is the unnamed narrator of this impassioned novel of black lives in 1940s America. Embittered by a country which treats him as a non-being he retreats to an underground cell.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: Toni Morrison's Beloved William L. Andrews, Nellie Y. McKay, 1999-01-21 With the continued expansion of the literary canon, multicultural works of modern literary fiction and autobiography have assumed an increasing importance for students and scholars of American literature. This exciting new series assembles key documents and criticism concerning these works that have so recently become central components of the American literature curriculum. Each casebook will reprint documents relating to the work's historical context and reception, present the best in critical essays, and when possible, feature an interview of the author. The series will provide, for the first time, an accessible forum in which readers can come to a fuller understanding of these contemporary masterpieces and the unique aspects of American ethnic, racial, or cultural experience that they so ably portray. This casebook to Morrison's classic novel presents seven essays that represent the best in contemporary criticism of the book. In addition, the book includes a poem and an abolitionist's tra published after a slave named Margaret Garner killed her child to save her from slavery—the very incident Morrison fictionalizes in Beloved.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: 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.
  norton anthology of african american literature: The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-century American Poetry Rita Dove, 2011 An anthology of twentieth-century American poetry, featuring Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Hayden, Gwendolyn Brooks, Derek Walcott, Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Anne Sexton, and many others.
  norton anthology of african american literature: The Collected Stories Reynolds Price, 2004-02-10 An anthology by one of America's most distinguished writers features fifty short stories, including selections from two prior collections--The Names and Faces of Heroes and Permanent Errors--as well as more than two dozen newer tales. Reprint.
  norton anthology of african american literature: Prison Narratives from Boethius to Zana P. Phillips, 2014-07-24 Prison Narratives from Boethius to Zana critically examines selected works of writers, from the sixth century to the twenty-first century, who were imprisoned for their beliefs. Chapters explore figures' lives, provide close analyses of their works, and offer contextualization of their prison writings.
  norton anthology of african american literature: African American Literature Hans Ostrom, J. David Macey Jr., 2019-11-15 This essential volume provides an overview of and introduction to African American writers and literary periods from their beginnings through the 21st century. This compact encyclopedia, aimed at students, selects the most important authors, literary movements, and key topics for them to know. Entries cover the most influential and highly regarded African American writers, including novelists, playwrights, poets, and nonfiction writers. The book covers key periods of African American literature—such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and the Civil Rights Era—and touches on the influence of the vernacular, including blues and hip hop. The volume provides historical context for critical viewpoints including feminism, social class, and racial politics. Entries are organized A to Z and provide biographies that focus on the contributions of key literary figures as well as overviews, background information, and definitions for key subjects.
  norton anthology of african american literature: Black Boy [Seventy-fifth Anniversary Edition] Richard Wright, 2020-02-18 A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson. When it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, Black Boy was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that “if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy.” Yet from 1975 to 1978, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for “obscenity” and “instigating hatred between the races.” Wright’s once controversial, now celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a Black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse, and hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole, and raged at those around him—whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and Blacks resentful of anyone trying to rise above their circumstances. Desperate for a different way of life, he headed north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he forged a new path and began his career as a writer. At the end of Black Boy, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to “hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo.” Seventy-five years later, his words continue to reverberate. “To read Black Boy is to stare into the heart of darkness,” John Edgar Wideman writes in his foreword. “Not the dark heart Conrad searched for in Congo jungles but the beating heart I bear.” One of the great American memoirs, Wright’s account is a poignant record of struggle and endurance—a seminal literary work that illuminates our own time.
  norton anthology of african american literature: The Norton Anthology of Poetry James Knapp, Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy, 1996
The Norton Anthology Of African American Literature
The Norton Anthology of African American Literature A dazzling and comprehensive overview of the African American literary tradition. This landmark anthology includes the work of 120 …

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Given the cultural, social, political, and economic struggle of African Americans towards claiming a …

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Practitioners sought to combine the African American vernacu-lar resonances of sermons, popular music, …

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Smith published the Anthology of American Literature (1974) that a significant representation of African …

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