Anthologies of African American Writing

African American Literature Beyond Race: An Alternative Reader

"African American Literature beyond Race: An Alternative Reader" . Ed. Gene Andrew Jarrett. New York: New York UP, 2006. xiv+444 pp.

● Acknowledgements
● Gene Andrew Jarrett / Introduction Not Necessarily Race Matter

Part I: Postbellum Period, 1865-1900
● Werner Sollers / Introduction
● Frank J. Webb / Two Wolves and a Lamb: An Original Tale (1870)
● Carla L. Peterson / Introduction
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Excerpt [from "Sowing and Reaping"] (1876-77) Chapter 1: Setting Out in Life
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Excerpt [from "Sowing and Reaping"] (1876-77) Chapter 2: The Decision
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Excerpt [from "Sowing and Reaping"] (1876-77) Chapter 4: Every Man Has His Price
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Excerpt [from "Sowing and Reaping"] (1876-77) Chapter 6: The Verge of a Precipice
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Excerpt [from "Sowing and Reaping"] (1876-77) Chapter 7: The Engagement
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Excerpt [from "Sowing and Reaping"] (1876-77) Chapter 8: Sowing and Reaping
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Excerpt [from "Sowing and Reaping"] (1876-77) Chapter 9: Belle Gordon
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Excerpt [from "Sowing and Reaping"] (1876-77) Chapter 10: A Drunkard's Wife
● Gene Andrew Jarrett / Introduction
● Paul Laurence Dunbar / Excerpt [from "The Uncalled"] 1898 Chapter 10: The Seminary
● Paul Laurence Dunbar / Excerpt [from "The Uncalled"] 1898 Chapter 11: The Sermon
● Paul Laurence Dunbar / Excerpt [from "The Uncalled"] 1898 Chapter 12: The Ordination

Part II: Between the World Wars, 1919-1940:
● George B. Hutchinson / Introduction
● Nella Larsen / The Wrong Man" (1926)
● Nella Larsen / Freedom" (1926)
● Matthew Guterl / Introduction
● Jean Toomer / Excerpt [From "York Beach"] (1928) Chapter 1: The Perfect Place
● Jean Toomer / Excerpt [From "York Beach"] (1928) Chapter 2: Individuality
● Amritjit Singh / Introduction
● Wallace Thurman / Excerpt [from "The Interne"] (1932) Chapter 2: Flanagan Hall
● Wallace Thurman / Excerpt [from "The Interne"] (1932) Chapter 3: Touring the Hospital
● Wallace Thurman / Excerpt [from "The Interne"] (1932) Chapter 9: The Fire
● Wallace Thurman / Excerpt [from "The Interne"] (1932) Chapter 12: Carl's Problems

Part III: After World War II, 1945-1960
● Gene Andrew Jarrett / Introduction
● Frank Yerby / Excerpt [from "The Foxes of Harrow"] (1946) Chapter 1: New Orleans
● Hazel Arnett Ervin / Introduction
● Ann Petry / Excerpt [from "Country Place"] (1947) Chapter 1: Lenox, Connecticut
● Ann Petry / Excerpt [from "Country Place"] (1947) Chapter 7: A Discovery
● Ann Petry / Excerpt [from "Country Place"] (1947) Chapter 8: Mearns Gramby
● Ann Petry / Excerpt [from "Country Place"] (1947) Chapter 25: The Will
● Hazel V. Carby / Introduction
● Zora Neale Hurston / Excerpt [from "Seraph on the Suwanee"] (1948) Chapter 1: The Secret Life of Arvay
● John Charles / Introduction
● Chester B. Himes / Excerpt [from "Yesterday Will Make You Cry"] (1952) Book 2: Flood of Tears Chapter 9: Memories
● Chester B. Himes / Excerpt [from "Yesterday Will Make You Cry"] (1952) Book 3: Shall Become the Same at Last: Chapter 1 A Riot
● Gerald Early / Introduction
● Richard Wright / Excerpt [from "Savage Holiday"] (1954) Part One: Anxiety
● Mae G. Henderson / Introduction
● James Baldwin / Excerpt [from "Giovanni's Room"] (1956) Chapter 1: The Flight

Part IV: Contemporary Period after 1965
● Jeffrey Allen Tucker / Introduction
● Samuel R. Delany / “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (1968)
● Gene Andrew Jarrett / Introduction
● Toni Morrison / "Recitatif" (1983)
● Jeffrey Allen Tucker / Introduction
● Octavia E. Butler / "Bloodchild" (1984)
● Select Bibliography
● About the Contributors
● Index

• "An anthology of 16 stories and excerpts from novels by African American writers includes critical essays on each author by a variety of scholars."

• Temple, Christel N. "Journal of African American Studies" 12.4 (2008): 414-16. "JSTOR".
Jarrett's anthology offers a collection of "raceless Black literature," that is, "literature by African Americans in which the race of the characters is not indicated" (Temple 2008: 414). In his introduction, Jarrett laments that "teachers, readers, and advocates of an exclusive category of African American literature have wilfully overlooked literary texts, even those written by the most acclaimed African American writers, because the texts do not present characters that are clearly racially defined as Black" (Temple 2008: 414). The anthology offers, as its subtitle suggests, an "alternative reader," but its "contents do not replace the substantial core of African American literature that is self-determinedly responsive to Black life, including issues of African heritage, appearance, linguistic patterns, and cultural identity and traditions managed amidst America's obsession, since colonial reconfigurations of English law, with race, the privileges of whiteness maintained by racial hierarchies, and the curbing of African American life chances and experiences" (Temple 2008: 415). "Jarrett's collection is compatible with the contemporary range of hybridity studies and examinations that imagine what new interrogations would be possible if the racial lens were no longer a requirement for the assessment of African American experience" (Temple 2008: 416).

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