Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self
- ISBN-10
- 0199729174
- ISBN-13
- 9780199729173
- Category
- African Americans in literature
- Pages
- 348
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1987-07-16
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Author
- Henry Louis Gates Jr. Chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies and W.E.B. DuBois Professor of the Humanities Harvard University
Description
"The originality, brilliance, and scope of the work is remarkable.... Gates will instruct, delight, and stimulate a broad range of readers, both those who are already well versed in Afro-American literature, and those who, after reading this book, will eagerly begin to be."--Barbara E. Johnson, Harvard University. "A critical enterprise of the first importance.... Gates promises to lead and to show the way in boldness of conception, in vigor of execution, and in vitality and pertinence of expression."--James Olney, Louisiana State University. Recently awarded Honorable Mention from the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize Committee of the American Studies Association, Figures in Black takes a provocative new look at how we analyze and define black literature. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., attacks the notion that the dominant mode of Afro-American literature is, or should be, a kind of social realism, evaluated primarily as a reflection of the "Black Experience." Instead, Gates insists that critics turn to the language of the text and bring to their work the close, methodical analysis of language made possible by modern literary theory. But his goal in this volume is not merely to "apply" contemporary theory to black texts. Indeed, as he ranges from 18th-century poet Phillis Wheatley to modern writers Ishmael Reed and Alice Walker, he attempts to redefine literary criticism itself, moving it away from a Eurocentric notion of a hierarchical canon--mostly white, Western, and male--to foster a truly comparative and pluralisic notion of literature. In doing so, he provides critics with a powerful tool for the analysis of black art and, more important, reveals for all readers the brilliance and depth of the Afro-American tradition.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 1989
- 311 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press on Demand
-
- 1987
- 311 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
Reading, Learning, Teaching Toni Morrison
By Karen F. SteinGrace ( Gigi ) Gibson Gigi , whose given name , Grace , means “ grace of God , ” is the daughter of Manley Gibson , a convicted felon on death row , and a mother about whom she knows nothing . Some critics have suggested that the ...
-
The Representation of the Savage in James Fenimore Cooper and Herman Melville
By Anna KrauthammerIt is a mythic relationship , which , as both Leslie Fiedler and D.H. Lawrence suggest , has been fantasized about , but is never realized . ” It is always out of reach , like the mystery of Moby Dick for Ahab .
-
Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston's Cosmic Comedy
By John Lowe"Lowe has written what may well be the Hurston book for the years to come.
-
Black Feminism in Contemporary Drama
By Lisa M. AndersonKaren Laughlin and Catherine Schuler. Madison and Teaneck, N.J.: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995. Parks, Suzan-Lori. The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World. In The America Play and Other Plays.
-
Soittoa pimeässä: valkoihoisuus ja kirjailijan luova mielikuvitus
By Marja Alopaeus, Toni MorrisonSoittoa pimeässä: valkoihoisuus ja kirjailijan luova mielikuvitus
-
The Inhuman Race: The Racial Grotesque in American Literature and Culture
By Leonard CassutoAs the various dramatizations of the story of John Merrick ("the Elephant Man”) show, for example, the 0therness of the grotesque is differently perceived over time, a relation affected by knowledge, context (for example, those who saw ...
-
Invisible Man's Literary Heritage: Benito Cereno and Moby Dick
By Valerie Bonita GrayGERALD LEVIN : Richardson the Novelist : The Psychological Patterns . Amsterdam 1978. 172 p . Hfl . 30.Table of Contents : Preface . Chapter One . The Problem of Criticism . Chapter Two . “ Conflicting Trends ” in Pamela .
-
Struggles Over the Word: Race and Religion in O'Connor, Faulkner, Hurston, and Wright
By Timothy Paul CaronRace and Religion in O'Connor, Faulkner, Hurston, and Wright Timothy Paul Caron ... James H. Cone has described the black church's theology as a type of " liberation theology . " 310 After all , the black church has been about ...
-
Understanding August Wilson
By Mary L. BogumilMary L. Bogumil. UNDERSTANDING AUGUST WILSON Understanding Contemporary American Literature Matthew J. Bruccoli , Series Editor. This One 07B5-3C8 - LORB 98-40219.
-
Gothic America: Narrative, History, and Nation
By Teresa A. GodduEdited by Lynette Carpenter and Wendy K. Kolmar . Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press , 1991 . The Southern Literary Messenger Vol . 3 , No. 1 ( January 1837 ) . The Southern Literary Messenger Vol . 16 , No. 3 ( March , 1850 ) .