Table of Contents

Introduction Maryemma Graham and Jerry Ward; Part I. African American Literature from Its Origins to the Twentieth Century: 1. Sounds of a tradition: the souls of Black folk F. Abiola Irele; 2. Early print literature of Africans in America Philip Gould; 3. The emergence of an African American literary canon, 1760–1820 Vincent Carretta; 4. Dividing a nation, uniting a people: African American literature and the Abolitionist Movement Stefan Wheelock; 5. African American literature and the slave narrative genre John Ernest; 6. Writing freedom: race, religion, and revolution, 1820–40 Kimberly Blockett; 7. 'We wish to plead our own cause': independent Antebellum African American literature, 1840–65 Joycelyn Moody; 8. Racial ideologies in theory and practice: political and cultural nationalism, 1865–1910 Warren Carson; 9. The 'fictions' of race Keith Byerman and Hanna Wallinger; 10. 'We wear the mask': the making of a poet Keith Leonard; 11. Toward a modernist poetics Mark Sanders; Part II. African American Literature since the Twentieth Century: 12. Foundations of African American modernism, 1910–50 Craig Werner and Sandra Shannon; 13. The New Negro Movement and the politics of art Emily Bernard; 14. African American literature and the Great Depression Darryl Dickson-Carr; 15. Weaving jagged words: the Black Left, 1930s–40s Nicole Walingora-Davis; 16. Writing the American story, 1945–52 John Lowe; 17. Geographies of the modern: writing beyond borders and boundaries Sabine Broeck; 18. African American literature by writers of Caribbean descent Daryl Cumber Dance; 19. Reform and revolution, 1965–76: the Black aesthetic at work James Smethurst and Howard Ramsby; 20. History as fact and fiction Trudier Harris; 21. Redefining the art of poetry Opal Moore; 22. Cultural resistance and avant-garde aesthetics: African American poetry from 1970 to the present Tony Bolden; 23. New frontiers, cross-currents and convergencies: emerging cultural paradigms Madhu Dubey and Elizabeth Goldberg; Part III. African American Literature as Academic and Cultural Capital: 24. Children's and young adult literatures Giselle L. Anatol; 25. From writer to reader: Black popular fiction Candice Love Jackson; 26. Cultural capital and the presence of Africa: Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson and the power of Black theatre Harry Elam; 27. African American literature: foundational scholarship, criticism and theory Lawrence P. Jackson; 28. African American literatures and new world cultures Kenneth Warren; Bibliography; Suggested further reading.

Promotional Information

A major new history of the literary traditions, oral and print, of African-descended peoples in the United States.

About the Author

Maryemma Graham is a Professor of English at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Jerry W. Ward, Jr is a Professor of English at Dillard University, New Orleans.

Reviews

'The Cambridge History of African American Literature is a very timely contribution to the project of literary history in the 21st century and an invaluable resource for both scholars and students of African American literature. All of the individual chapters offer extremely rich and insightful discussions of many well-known and lesser-known authors and works in their social, historical, political, and aesthetic contexts.' Michael Basseler, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany

'In its reframing of black discourse, introduction of new paradigms, and charting of new geographies, this collection represents an important and necessary addition to any collection of African American and American literature.' Folashade Alao, University of South Carolina