There has been a dramatic resurgence of interest in early
African American writing. Since the accidental rediscovery and
republication of Harriet Wilson's "Our Nig" in 1983, the works of
dozens of 19th and early 20th century black writers have been
recovered and reprinted. There is now a significant revival of
interest in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s; and in the last
decade alone, several major assessments of 18th and 19th century
African American literature have been published. Early African
American literature builds on a strong oral tradition of songs,
folktales, and sermons. Slave narratives began to appear during the
late 18th and early 19th century, and later writers began to engage
a variety of themes in diverse genres.
A central objective of this reference book is to provide a
wide-ranging introduction to the first 200 years of African
American literature. Included are alphabetically arranged entries
for 78 black writers active between 1745 and 1945. Among these
writers are essayists, novelists, short story writers, poets,
playwrights, and autobiographers. Each entry is written by an
expert contributor and provides a biography, a discussion of major
works and themes, an overview of the author's critical reception,
and primary and secondary bibliographies. The volume concludes with
a selected, general bibliography.
General
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