New Essays on the African American Novel

This collection contributes to scholarly discussions about the African American novel as a literary form. Essays respond to the general question, what has been the impact of the African American vernacular tradition from the spirituals, blues, gospel and jazz to hip hop on the structure and style of the modern African American novel?

This collection contributes to scholarly discussions about the African American novel as a literary form. Essays respond to the general question, what has been the impact of the African American vernacular tradition from the spirituals, blues, gospel and jazz to hip hop on the structure and style of the modern African American novel?

Anna Julia Cooper, Charles Chesnutt and the Hampton Folklore Society- Constructing a Black Folk Aesthetic through Folklore and Memory- S. Moody Blues Narratology and the African-American Novel- A. Scheiber Edward Christopher Williams and the Other Washington Novel- J. Charis-Carlson What She Sows: The Evolution of African American Female Bildung and the Journey to Self from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God to Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower - B. Smith 'And I Might Even Be Said to Possess a Mind:' Hibernation, Psychoanalysis and Schizophrenia in Invisible Man - J. King The Literate Pimp: Robert Beck, Iceberg Slim, and Pimping the African American Novel- C.Love Jackson 'A Different Kind of Experiment': Clarence Major's Dirty Bird Blues and the Music of Visibility Clarence Major's Dirty Bird Blues - W. Nash Underground Railroads and Drives: Gayl Jones's Mosquito - S. Jane Dreaming and Waking in Wonderland: Faith and the Good Thing and Charles Johnson's Fairy Tale Fictions- G. Chandler Seeking Space to Save Humanity: Spatial Realignments as a Structuring Motif in Octavia E. Butler's Clay's Ark - M.Mickle Dancing Minds and Plays in the Dark: Intersections of Fiction and Critical Texts in Gayl Jones's Corregidora , Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt Eaters , and Toni Morrison's Paradise - D. Williams Specters of Public Massacre: Violence and the Collective in Toni Morrison's Paradise- S. Subramanian Female Sexual Subjects in the Post-Soul Aesthetic African American Women's Novel- L. King Stomping the Blues No More? Hip Hop Aesthetics and Contemporary African American Literature- R. Schur The Rise of Colson Whitehead: Hi-Tech Narratives and Literary Ascent- H. Rambsy II