African literature Summary

In the following introduction, excerpted from a short story anthology by writers of African descent, Rowell reflects on the difficulty in choosing a title for this collection, noting that finding comm... Read more

In the following essay, Price examines the attitude of The Atlantic Monthly to African Americans in the nineteenth century and traces the periodical's relationship with the prominent African Am... Read more

In the following essay, Waniek explores the themes of alienation and duality as reflected in Paule Marshall's short fiction. As a first-generation West Indian-American and the author of thre... Read more

In the following essay, Roy offers a brief evaluation of the black experience as reflected in Henry Dumas's Ark of Bones and Other Stories. Reading Ark of Bones and Other Stories by Henry Du... Read more

In the following essay, Baum reflects on the politico-feminist aspects of Zora Neale Hurston's work, drawing parallels with other black female writers such as Nella Larson, Alice Walker, and To... Read more

In the following essay, Cowart explains how Alice Walker uses her main characters in “Everyday Use” to outline her own vision of the African American community in the past and present, a... Read more

In the following essay, Birns contends that Octavia Butler “employs her African American and science fiction heritages to see anew the way things are.” In her essay “Furor Scri... Read more

In the following essay, Sturgess considers Dionne Brand's particular status as “a Trinidadian Canadian black lesbian feminist” through a theoretically informed analysis of stories... Read more

In the following essay, N'Zengou-Tayo investigates how Edwidge Danticat utilizes traditional Haitian stories and beliefs in her work. In the last pages of Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danti... Read more

In the following essay, Braziel asserts that Jamaica Kincaid's utilization of Obeah, a Caribbean diasporic religion, in “In the Night” “is linked to contemporary Caribbean ... Read more