The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature

329 Pages·2009·1.59 MB·English

by  Angelyn Mitchell

the cambridge companion to
african american women’s literature
TheCambridgeCompaniontoAfricanAmericanWomen’sLiteraturecoversa
period dating back to the eighteenth century. These specially commissioned
essayshighlighttheartistry,complexityanddiversityofaliterarytraditionthat
rangesfromLucyTerrytoToniMorrison.Awiderangeoftopicsareaddressed,
fromtheHarlemRenaissancetotheBlackArtsmovement,andfromtheperform-
ingartstopopularfiction.Together,theessaysprovideaninvaluableguidetoa
rich,complextraditionofwomenwritersinconversationwitheachotherasthey
critiqueAmericansocietyandinfluenceAmericanletters.Accessibleandvibrant,
with the needs of undergraduate students in mind, this Companion will be of
great interest to anybody who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of this
importantandvitalareaofAmericanliterature.
angelyn mitchell is Associate Professor of English and African American
Studies,GeorgetownUniversity.
danillek.taylorisDeanofHumanities,DillardUniversity.
Acompletelistofbooksintheseriesisatthebackofthisbook

THE CAMBRIDGE
COMPANION TO
AFRICAN AMERICAN
’
WOMEN S LITERATURE
EDITED BY
ANGELYN MITCHELL
GeorgetownUniversity,Washington,DC
AND
DANILLE K. TAYLOR
DillardUniversity,NewOrleans
cambridge university press
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,Singapore,SãoPaulo,Delhi
CambridgeUniversityPress
TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecb28ru,UK
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521675826
©CambridgeUniversityPress2009
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout
thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2009
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
TheCambridgecompaniontoAfricanAmericanwomen’sliterature/edited
byAngelynMitchellandDanilleTaylor.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
isbn978-0-521-85888-5
1. Americanliterature–AfricanAmericanauthors–Historyandcriticism. 2. American
literature–Womenauthors–Historyandcriticism. 3. AfricanAmericanwomen–Intellectual
life. 4. Womenandliterature–UnitedStates–History. 5. AfricanAmericanwomenin
literature. I. Mitchell,Angelyn,1960– II. Taylor,Danille. III. Title.
PS153.N5C343 2009
810.9′9287–dc22
2009005864
isbn978-0-521-85888-5hardback
isbn978-0-521-67582-6paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityfor
thepersistenceoraccuracyofURLsforexternalor
third-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhisbook,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Toourmothers,
GertrudeMannTaylor(1915–2005)
and
EvelynWigginsMitchell,
and
toAdamTaylorGuthrieandCarilleMaryNicoleGuthrie,
myhome-Mom
Lavidaesuncarnival! –CeliaCruz
CONTENTS
Listofcontributors pageix
Acknowledgements xii
Chronologyofmajorworksandevents xiii
Introduction
angelyn mitchell and danille k. taylor 1
i. history, contexts, and criticism 13
1. EarlyAfricanAmericanwomen’sliterature
frances smith foster and larose davis 15
2. WomenoftheHarlemRenaissance
cheryl a. wall 32
3. WomenwritersoftheBlackArtsmovement
eleanor w. traylor 50
4. ContemporaryAfricanAmericanwomenwriters
dana a. williams 71
5. AfricanAmericanfeministtheoriesandliterarycriticism
robert j. patterson 87
ii. genre, gender, and race 107
6. AfricanAmericanwomenandtheUnitedStatesslavenarrative
joycelyn moody 109
7. AutobiographyandAfricanAmericanwomen’sliterature
joanne m. braxton 128
vii
contents
8. “Evensomefictionmightbeuseful”:AfricanAmericanwomennovelists
madhu dubey 150
9. AfricanAmericanwomenpoetsandthepoweroftheword
keith d. leonard 168
10. AfricanAmericanwomenintheperformingarts
olga barrios 187
11. AfricanAmericanwomenwritersofchildren’sandyoung
adultliterature
dianne johnson 210
12. AfricanAmericanwomenessayists
marilyn sanders mobley 224
13. AfricanAmericanwomenwritersandtheshortstory
crystal j. lucky 245
14. AfricanAmericanwomenwritersandpopularfiction:theorizing
blackwomanhood
herman beavers 262
Bibliography 278
Index 301
viii
CONTRIBUTORS
OLGA BARRIOS is a professor in the department of English Studies, Universidad de
Salamanca,Spain.Sheistheco-editorofContemporaryLiteratureintheAfrican
Diaspora (1997) and The Family in Africa and the African Diaspora: A
MultidisciplinaryApproach(2003).
HERMAN BEAVERS is an associate professor of English at the University of
Pennsylvania. He is the author of Wrestling Angels into Song: The Fictions of
Ernest J. Gaines and James Alan McPherson (1995), as well as over twenty-five
articlesandbookchapters.Heguest-editedissuesofbothAfricanAmericanReview
andNarrative,andheeitherservedorisservingontheeditorialboardsofAmerican
Literature,ModernFictionStudies,ModernLiteraryStudies,andAfricanAmerican
Review. His creative works include the chapbook, A Neighborhood of Feeling
(1986).
JOANNEM.BRAXTONistheFrancesL.andEdwinL.CummingsProfessorofEnglish
and Humanities at the College of William and Mary. She is the author of Black
Women Writing Autobiography (1989) and the editor of Wild Women in the
Whirlwind: Afra-American Culture and the Contemporary Literary Renaissance
(1990),TheCollectedPoetryofPaulLaurenceDunbar(1993),andMonumentsof
theBlackAtlantic:SlaveryandMemory(2004).
LAROSE DAVIS, who recently earned a Ph.D. at Emory University, is a lecturer of
EnglishatSpelmanCollege.
MADHUDUBEYisaprofessorofEnglishandAfricanAmericanStudiesattheUniversity
ofIllinoisinChicago.SheistheauthorofBlackWomenNovelistsandtheNationalist
Aesthetic(1994)andSignsandCities:BlackLiteraryPostmodernism(2003).Sheis
currentlyworkingonabookaboutOctaviaButler.
FRANCES SMITH FOSTER is Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and
Women’sStudiesatEmoryUniversity. Shehasauthored, edited,orco-edited ten
booksandnumerousarticles,includingWrittenbyHerself:LiteraryProductionby
ix