African American Writers and Classical Tradition
- ISBN-10
- 0226789985
- ISBN-13
- 9780226789989
- Category
- Literary Criticism
- Pages
- 384
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2011-06-07
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Authors
- William W. Cook, James Tatum
Description
Constraints on freedom, education, and individual dignity have always been fundamental in determining who is able to write, when, and where. Considering the singular experience of the African American writer, William W. Cook and James Tatum here argue that African American literature did not develop apart from canonical Western literary traditions but instead grew out of those literatures, even as it adapted and transformed the cultural traditions and religions of Africa and the African diaspora along the way. Tracing the interaction between African American writers and the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome, from the time of slavery and its aftermath to the civil rights era and on into the present, the authors offer a sustained and lively discussion of the life and work of Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, and Rita Dove, among other highly acclaimed poets, novelists, and scholars. Assembling this brilliant and diverse group of African American writers at a moment when our understanding of classical literature is ripe for change, the authors paint an unforgettable portrait of our own reception of “classic” writing, especially as it was inflected by American racial politics.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2012-04-16
- 464 pages
- Paperback
- University of Chicago Press
Similar books
-
Ulysses in Black: Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature
By Patrice D. RankineFrom Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. 8th ed. New York: Knopf. Frazer,James George.1996.The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion.New York: Simon and Schuster. Freeman, Thomas. 2001. The Case of Hans Henny Jahnn ...
-
Empire of Ruin: Black Classicism and American Imperial Culture
By John Levi Barnard... with nationalist grandeur the failure or abandonment of the principles for which a revolution was carried out , resonates with his earlier linkage of the Bunker Hill Monument to the Vendôme Column and Trajan's Column in Rome .
-
African American Literature and the Classicist Tradition: Black Women Writers from Wheatley to Morrison
By T. WaltersIn both poems, Ray reverses traditional representations of women: Niobe transforms from the aggressor to the victim, while Echo's passive nature is traded for an aggressive demeanor. Ray's reenactments of the Echo and Niobe stories also ...
-
Liberating Voices: Oral Tradition in African American Literature
By Gayl JonesWith this work Gayl Jones has added a new dimension to African American literary history.
-
The Black Intellectual Tradition: African American Thought in the Twentieth Century
By James B. Stewart, Derrick P. Alridge, Cornelius L. BynumThis volume presents essays on the diverse thought behind the fight for racial justice as developed by African American artists and intellectuals; performers and protest activists; institutions and organizations; and educators and religious ...
-
South of Tradition: Essays on African American Literature
By Trudier Harris2) Rosiebelle Lee Wildcat Tennessee (Andrews), 91 Rubin, Louis D., Jr., ix Saints, Sinners, Saviors (Harris-Lopez), 197 SaltEaters, The (Bambara), 140, 143 Sambo: The Rise and Demise of an American Jester (Boskin), 158, 204 Sambo/clown ...
-
Toni Morrison and the Classical Tradition: Transforming American Culture
By Tessa RoynonIn this volume, Roynon explores Toni Morrison's widespread engagement with ancient Greek and Roman tradition.
-
The Classical Tradition in Modern American Fiction
By Tessa RoynonExplores the importance and complexity of classical allusiveness in the modern American novel Explores both the sheer extent and the ideologically-invested nature of classical allusiveness in the modern American novel Sheds significant new ...
-
African-American Writers
By Philip Bader“The Nation was the one organization that was trying to deal with the concepts of nationhood, morality, small businesses, schools,” Sanchez explained in Claudia Tate's Black Women Writers at Work (1983). However, the limitations placed ...
-
The Ebony Column: Classics, Civilization, and the African American Reclamation of the West
By Eric Ashley HairstonI was impressed by the amount of deep archival research that was conducted in order to complete this book.” —Cedrick May, author of Evangelism and Resistance in the Black Atlantic, 1760–1835 In The Ebony Column, Eric Ashley Hairston ...