A Companion to African American Literature

Through a series of essays that explore the forms, themes, genres, historical contexts, major authors, and latest critical approaches, A Companion to African American Literature presents a comprehensive chronological overview of African American literature from the eighteenth century to the modern day Examines African American literature from its earliest origins, through the rise of antislavery literature in the decades leading into the Civil War, to the modern development of contemporary African American cultural media, literary aesthetics, and political ideologies Addresses the latest critical and scholarly approaches to African American literature Features essays by leading established literary scholars as well as newer voices

Through a series of essays that explore the forms, themes, genreshistorical contexts, major authors, and latest critical approachesA Companion to African American Literature presents acomprehensive chronological overview of African American literaturefrom the eighteenth century to the modern day* Examines African American literature from its earliest originsthrough the rise of antislavery literature in the decades leadinginto the Civil War, to the modern development of contemporaryAfrican American cultural media, literary aesthetics, and politicalideologies* Addresses the latest critical and scholarly approaches toAfrican American literature* Features essays by leading established literary scholars aswell as newer voices

Notes on Contributors viiiIntroduction 1Gene Andrew JarrettPart I. The Literatures of Africa, Middle Passage, Slaveryand Freedom: The Early and Antebellum Periods, c.1750-186591. Back to the Future: Eighteenth-Century Transatlantic BlackAuthors 11Vincent Carretta2. Africa in Early African American Literature 25James Sidbury3. Ports of Call, Pulpits of Consultation: Rethinking theOrigins of African American Literature 45Frances Smith Foster and Kim D. Green4. The Constitution of Toussaint: Another Origin of AfricanAmerican Literature 59Michael J. Drexler and Ed White5. Religion in Early African American Literature 75Joanna Brooks and Tyler Mabry6. The Economies of the Slave Narrative 90Philip Gould7. The 1850s: The First Renaissance of Black Letters 103Maurice S. Lee8. African American Literary Nationalism 119Robert S. Levine9. Periodicals, Print Culture, and African American Poetry133Ivy G. WilsonPart II. New Negro Aesthetics, Culture, and Politics: TheModern Period, 1865-c.1940 14910. Racial Uplift and the Literature of the New Negro 151Marlon B. Ross11. The Dialect of New Negro Literature 169Gene Andrew Jarrett12. African American Literary Realism, 1865-1914 185Andreá N. Williams13. Folklore and African American Literature in thePost-Reconstruction Era 200Shirley Moody-Turner14. The Harlem Renaissance: The New Negro at Home and Abroad212Michelle Ann Stephens15. Transatlantic Collaborations: Visual Culture in AfricanAmerican Literature 227Cherene Sherrard-Johnson16. Aesthetic Hygiene: Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and theWork of Art 243Mark Christian Thompson17. African American Modernism and State Surveillance 254William J. MaxwellPart III. Reforming the Canon, Tradition, and Criticism ofAfrican American Literature: The Contemporary Periodc.1940-Present 26918. The Chicago Renaissance 271Michelle Yvonne Gordon19. Jazz and African American Literature 286Keith D. Leonard20. The Black Arts Movement 302James Edward Smethurst21. Humor in African American Literature 315Glenda R. Carpio22. Neo-Slave Narratives 332Madhu Dubey23. Popular Black Women's Fiction and the Novels of TerryMcMillan 347Robin V. Smiles24. African American Science Fiction 360Jeffrey Allen Tucker25. Latino/a Literature and the African Diaspora 376Theresa Delgadillo26. African American Literature and Queer Studies: The Conundrumof James Baldwin 393Guy Mark Foster27. African American Literature and Psychoanalysis 410Arlene R. KeizerName Index 421Subject Index 442