Human Contradictions in Octavia Butler's Work continues the critical discussions of Butler's work by offering a variety of theoretical perspectives and approaches to Butler's text. This collection contains original essays that engage Butler's series (Seed to Harvest, Xenogenesis, Parables), her stand-alone novels (Kindred and Fledgling), and her short stories. The essays explore new facets of Butler's work and its relevance to philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, cultural studies, ethnic studies, women's studies, religious studies, American studies, and U.S. history. The volume establishes new ways of reading this seminal figure in African American literature, science fiction, feminism, and popular culture.

Human Contradictions in Octavia Butler's Work continues the critical discussions of Butler's work by offering a variety of theoretical perspectives and approaches to Butler's text. This collection contains original essays that engage Butler's series (Seed to Harvest, Xenogenesis, Parables), her stand-alone novels (Kindred and Fledgling), and her short stories. The essays explore new facets of Butler's work and its relevance to philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, cultural studies, ethnic studies, women's studies, religious studies, American studies, and U.S. history. The volume establishes new ways of reading this seminal figure in African American literature, science fiction, feminism, and popular culture.

Authentic Blackness - "Real" Blackness explores and explains the idea of authenticity, of "keeping it real," as it relates to the multi-faceted meanings of blackness in the United States and the world. Including reflections on hip-hop, comedy, literature, intellectual history, and autobiography, the collection gives both a broad overview of and intervenes in the debates concerning blackness. A comprehensive introductory essay outlines the history of the idea of "authentic blackness," while other chapters examine the contours of blackness in Canada and Jamaica; the relationship between middle-class status and "real" blackness; the link between "blackness" and hip-hop culture; Dave Chappelle's comedy; and the work of James Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Clarence Major, and John Edgar Wideman as it comments on authenticity in relation to race.

THE WRITER'S RESPONSE teaches you not only the basics of paragraph and essay writing-unity, coherence, and support-but also the basics of academic writing, making it a complete source to help you prepare for higher-level work. Through a variety of exercises and extensive readings, the text teaches you how to read carefully and summarize accurately, to recognize and respond to specific points in the material you have read, to synthesize ideas from several reading selections, and to evaluate and argue about the ideas you have found in your reading material. Although the authors' focus is on writing about reading, they also encourage you to use personal experiences to develop and support ideas. This combination results in a text that not only imparts the fundamentals of college-level writing, but also helps you find your voice.