The monograph engages the ways African American authors have shifted, recycled, and reinvented the conjure woman in twentieth century fiction, constructing a historiography of the conjure woman as a recurring literary archetype. I develop a new vocabulary and framework (conjuring moments) with which to articulate a critical discourse surrounding the black conjuring woman and the use of African-centered cosmologies as a trope in African American literature. I argue that within the last century, African American writers have subverted the negative connotation of women and spirit work through their literary expressions. The conjure woman figure has evolved as a bio-mythography used to resist the subjugation and marginalization of black women and provides critical socio-cultural commentary, a role currently unmatched by other black female models and characterizations.

This book engages the ways African American authors have shifted, recycled, and reinvented the conjure woman in fiction. Kameelah Martin Samuel traces her presence and function in twentieth-century literature through historical records, oral histories, blues music, and collections of African American folklore.