Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature
Item
Title
Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature
This edition
"The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature." Ed. Valerie Lee. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. xxx+426 pp.
Table of contents
● Preface
● Map: Writers and Geography: Birthplaces
● Timeline: African American Women's Literary and Cultural History
● Jacqueline Jones Royster / An Era of Resistance: 19th-Century African Ameircan Women's Writings
The Colonial and Antebellum Periods:
● Lucy Terry Prince (1730-1821) / Bars Fight (1746)
● Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) / On Being Brought from Africa to America (1773)
● Phillis Wheatley / To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works (1773)
● Phillis Wheatley / On Imagination (1773)
● Phillis Wheatley / To Samson Occom (1774)
● Phillis Wheatley / To His Excellency General Washington (1775)
● Jarena Lee (1783-1849) / from "The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee" (1836): My Call to Preach the Gospel
● Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) / Ar'n't I a Woman? Speech to the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, Presented May 29, 1851
● Sojourner Truth / When Woman Gets Her Rights, Man Will Be Right: Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association in New York (1867)
● Nancy Gardner Prince (ca. 1799-1856) / from "A Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince, Written by Herself" (1850)
● Maria W. Stewart (1803-1879) / from Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality (1831)
● Maria W. Stewart / Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall (1832)
● Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) / from "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" (1861): Chapter 1: Childhood
● Julia A. Foote (1823-1900) / from "A Brand Plucked from the Fire" (1879): Chapter 1: Birth and Parentage; Chapter 17: My Call to Preach the Gospel
● Frances E. W. Harper (1825-1911) / The Slave Mother (1854)
● Frances E. W. Harper / The Syrophenician Woman (1854)
● Frances E. W. Harper / Ethiopia (1854)
● Frances E. W. Harper / Bury Me in a Free Land (1857)
● Frances E. W. Harper / The Two Offers (1859)
● Frances E. W. Harper / Our Greatest Want (1859)
● Frances E. W. Harper / Woman's Political Future (1893)
● Frances E. W. Harper / A Double Standard (1894)
● Harriet E. Wilson (1828-1863) / from "Our Nig" (1859): Chapter 2: My Father's Death
● Hannah Crafts / from "The Bondwoman's Narrative" (ca. 1850s): A New Master
The Reconstruction Period:
● Elizabeth Keckley (ca. 1824-1907) / from "Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House" (1868): Preface; Chapter 1: Where I Was Born; Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes
● Charlotte L. Forten Grimké (1837-1914) / from "The Journals of Charlotte L. Forten Grimké": Introduction to the Journal; 25 May 1854-25 June 1854
● Gertrude Bustill Mossell (1855-1948) / A Lofty Study (1894)
● Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) / from "A Voice from the South" (1892): Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race; The Status of Woman in America
● Pauline E. Hopkins (1859-1930) / from "Contending Forces" (1900): Chapter 7: Friendship; Chapter 8: The Sewing-Circle
● Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) / from "A Red Record" (1895): Chapter 1: The Case Stated; Chapter 10: The Remedy
● Valerie Lee / Expansion, Experimentation, and Excellence: 20th- and 21st-Century African American Women's Writings
The Harlem Renaissance:
● Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) / I Sit and Sew (1920)
● Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson / Snow in October (1927)
● Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson / Letters from "Une Femme Dit," 20 Feb. 1926-13 March 1926
● Angelina Weld Grimké (1880-1958) / The Closing Door (1919)
● Angelina Weld Grimké / The Black Finger (1923)
● Anne Spencer (1882-1975) / Before the Feast of Shushan (1920)
● Anne Spencer / The Wife-Woman (1922)
● Anne Spencer / At the Carnival (1923)
● Anne Spencer / Lady, Lady (1925)
● Anne Spencer / Letter to My Sister (1927)
● Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961) / The Sleeper Wakes (1920)
● Jessie Redmon Fauset / from "Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral" (1929): Chapter 1: [Passing]
● Mary Effie Lee Newsome (1885-1979) / The Bronze Legacy (To a Brown Boy) (1922)
● Mary Effie Lee Newsome / Morning Light (The Dew-Drier) (1927)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson (1886-1966) / The Heart of a Woman (1918)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / Your World (1922)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / Motherhood (1922)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / Wishes (1927)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / I Want to Die While You Love Me (1928)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / "Plumes: A Folk Tragedy" (1927)
● Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) / Sweat (1926)
● Zora Neale Hurston / The Gilded Six-Bits (1933)
● Nella Larsen (1891-1964) / "Passing" (1929)
● Marita Bonner (1899-1971) / On Being Young—a Woman—and Colored (1925)
● Gwendolyn B. Bennett (1902-1981) / Heritage (1923)
● Gwendolyn B. Bennett / To a Dark Girl (1927)
● Helene Johnson (1907-1995) / Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem (1923)
● Helene Johnson / My Race (1925)
● Helene Johnson / Magalu (1927)
The 1940s-1959:
● Dorothy West (1907-1998) / The Typewriter (1926)
● Dorothy West / The Richer the Poorer (1967)
● Ann Petry (1908-1997) / Like a Winding Sheet (1945)
● Margaret Walker (1915-1998) / Ex-Slave (1938)
● Margaret Walker / For My People (1942)
● Margaret Walker / Lineage (1942)
● Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) / Kitchenette Building (1945)
● Gwendolyn Brooks / The Mother (1945)
● Gwendolyn Brooks / We Real Cool (1953)
● Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) / "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959)
Literature of the Black Aesthetic Movement: The 1960s and 1970s:
● Alice Childress (1920-1994) / from "Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life" (1956): Like One of the Family; Ridin' the Bus; All About My Job; Mrs. James; I Hate Half-Days Off
● Naomi Long Madgett (b. 1923) / The Old Women (1978)
● Naomi Long Madgett / Attitude at Seventy-Five (2001)
● Naomi Long Madgett / Gray Strands (2001)
● Maya Angelou (b. 1928) / Still I Rise (1978)
● Paule Marshall (b. 1929) / from "Soul Clap Hands and Sing" (1961): Brooklyn
● Kristin Hunter (b. 1931) / from "Guests in the Promised Land" (1968): Mom Luby and the Social Worker
● Sonia Sanchez (b. 1934) / Homecoming (1969)
● Sonia Sanchez / Poem at Thirty (1969)
● Sonia Sanchez / The Final Solution/ (1969)
● Sonia Sanchez / For Our Lady (1969)
● Sonia Sanchez / Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict (1970)
● June Jordan (1936-2002) / Independence Day in the U.S.A. (1985)
● June Jordan / Song of the Law Abiding Citizen (1985)
● June Jordan / Poem about My Rights (1989)
● June Jordan / Poem for Guatemala (1989)
● June Jordan / The Female and the Silence of a Man (1989)
● June Jordan / Intifada (1989)
● Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) / For Saundra (1968)
● Nikki Giovanni / Nikki-Rosa (1968)
● Carolyn M. Rodgers (b. 1945) / It Is Deep (1968)
● Carolyn M. Rodgers / How I Got Ovah (1968)
Literature of the Second Renaissance: The 1970s and 1980s:
● Toni Morrison (b. 1931) / Recitatif (1995)
● Adrienne Kennedy (b. 1931) / "Motherhood 2000" (1994)
● Audre Lorde (1934-1992) / A Litany for Survival (1978)
● Lucille Clifton (b. 1936) / Homage to My Hips (1980)
● Lucille Clifton / Homage to My Hair (1980)
● Jayne Cortez (b. 1936) / Rape (1984)
● Toni Cade Bambara / from "Gorilla, My Love" (1972): The Lesson; My Man Bovanne
● J. California Cooper (b. 1940) / from "A Piece of Mine" (1984): A Jewel for a Friend
● Barbara Neely (b. 1941) / Spilled Salt (1990)
● Alice Walker (b. 1944) / Roselily (1973)
● Pat Parker (1944-1989) / For the White Person Who Wants to Know How to Be My Friend (1978)
● Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999) / Any Woman's Blues (1975)
● Sherley Anne Williams / I Want Aretha to Set This to Music (1982)
● Marilyn Nelson Waniek (b. 1946) / The Writer's Wife (1978)
● Marilyn Nelson Waniek / The Lost Daughter (1985)
● Michelle Cliff (b. 1946) / from "Abeng" (1984): Chapter 2, [Nanny, The Sorceress]; Chapter 3
● Octavia Butler (b. 1947) / Bloodchild (1995)
● Ntozake Shange (b. 1948) / from "for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf" (1977): latent rapists
● Ntozake Shange / With No Immediate Cause (1978)
● Jewelle Gomez (b. 1948) / A Swimming Lesson (1986)
● Jewelle Gomez / Don't Explain (1998)
● Alexis De Veaux (b. 1948) / The Woman Who Lives in the Botanical Gardens (1983)
● Gloria Naylor (b. 1950) / from "The Women of Brewster Place" (1982): Kiswana Browne
● Gloria Naylor / from "Mama Day": [Willow Springs]
● Marita Golden (b. 1950) / from "Long Distance Life" (1989): Chapter 3: Naomi
● Rita Dove (b. 1952) / from "Thomas and Beulah" (1986): The Event; Variation on Pain; Motherhood; Daystar
● Jewell Parker Rhodes (b. 1954) / Long Distances (1989)
Literature from the New Millennium: The 1990s to the 21st Century:
● Tina McElroy Ansa (b. 1949) / Willie Bea and Jaybird (1991)
● Bebe Moore Campbell (b. 1950) / from "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine" (1992): Chapter 5: [Two Small Pretty Women Staring Down an Empty Train Track]
● Bebe Moore Campbell / from "Brothers and Sisters" (1994): Chapter 15: [LaKeesha's Job Interview]
● Bebe Moore Campbell / from "What You Owe Me" (2001): Chapter 2: [The Braddock Hotel]
● Terry McMillan (b. 1951) / Ma' Dear (1990)
● Julie Dash (b. 1952) / from "Daughters of the Dust" (1999): The Story of Ibo Landing
● Harryette Mullen (b. 1953) / Denigration (2002)
● Harryette Mullen / Exploring the Dark Continent (2002)
● Harryette Mullen / Souvenir from Anywhere (2002)
● Itabari Njeri (b. 1954) / from "Every Good-Bye Ain't Gone" (1991): Ruby
● Thylias Moss (b. 1954) / The Warmth of Her Chocolate (1993)
● Thylias Moss / Remembering Kitchens (1993)
● Jessica Care Moore (b. 1972) / princess (2003)
● Jessica Care Moore / The poem we have to write before thirty, because people will ask or I don't have a five-year plan! (2003)
● Jessica Care Moore / from "The Revolution in the Ladies Room": Colorstruck! (1997)
● Pearl Cleage (b. 1948) / from "I Wish I Had a Red Dress" (2001): Black Ice
● Tayari Jones (b. 1970) / from "Leaving Atlanta" (2002): The Direction Opposite of Home
Black Feminist Criticism and Womanist Theories:
● Barbara Christian / The Race for Theory (1987)
● Karla Holloway / Revision and (Re)membrace: A Theory of Literary Structures in Literature by African-American Women Writers (1990)
● Audre Lorde / The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House (1984)
● Deborah McDowell / New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism (1980)
● Carla Peterson / from "'Doers of the Word': Theorizing African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the Antebellum North" (1995): The Social Spheres of African-American Women; Black Women and Liminality
● Map: Writers and Geography: Birthplaces
● Timeline: African American Women's Literary and Cultural History
● Jacqueline Jones Royster / An Era of Resistance: 19th-Century African Ameircan Women's Writings
The Colonial and Antebellum Periods:
● Lucy Terry Prince (1730-1821) / Bars Fight (1746)
● Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) / On Being Brought from Africa to America (1773)
● Phillis Wheatley / To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works (1773)
● Phillis Wheatley / On Imagination (1773)
● Phillis Wheatley / To Samson Occom (1774)
● Phillis Wheatley / To His Excellency General Washington (1775)
● Jarena Lee (1783-1849) / from "The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee" (1836): My Call to Preach the Gospel
● Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) / Ar'n't I a Woman? Speech to the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, Presented May 29, 1851
● Sojourner Truth / When Woman Gets Her Rights, Man Will Be Right: Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association in New York (1867)
● Nancy Gardner Prince (ca. 1799-1856) / from "A Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince, Written by Herself" (1850)
● Maria W. Stewart (1803-1879) / from Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality (1831)
● Maria W. Stewart / Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall (1832)
● Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) / from "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" (1861): Chapter 1: Childhood
● Julia A. Foote (1823-1900) / from "A Brand Plucked from the Fire" (1879): Chapter 1: Birth and Parentage; Chapter 17: My Call to Preach the Gospel
● Frances E. W. Harper (1825-1911) / The Slave Mother (1854)
● Frances E. W. Harper / The Syrophenician Woman (1854)
● Frances E. W. Harper / Ethiopia (1854)
● Frances E. W. Harper / Bury Me in a Free Land (1857)
● Frances E. W. Harper / The Two Offers (1859)
● Frances E. W. Harper / Our Greatest Want (1859)
● Frances E. W. Harper / Woman's Political Future (1893)
● Frances E. W. Harper / A Double Standard (1894)
● Harriet E. Wilson (1828-1863) / from "Our Nig" (1859): Chapter 2: My Father's Death
● Hannah Crafts / from "The Bondwoman's Narrative" (ca. 1850s): A New Master
The Reconstruction Period:
● Elizabeth Keckley (ca. 1824-1907) / from "Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House" (1868): Preface; Chapter 1: Where I Was Born; Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes
● Charlotte L. Forten Grimké (1837-1914) / from "The Journals of Charlotte L. Forten Grimké": Introduction to the Journal; 25 May 1854-25 June 1854
● Gertrude Bustill Mossell (1855-1948) / A Lofty Study (1894)
● Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) / from "A Voice from the South" (1892): Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race; The Status of Woman in America
● Pauline E. Hopkins (1859-1930) / from "Contending Forces" (1900): Chapter 7: Friendship; Chapter 8: The Sewing-Circle
● Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) / from "A Red Record" (1895): Chapter 1: The Case Stated; Chapter 10: The Remedy
● Valerie Lee / Expansion, Experimentation, and Excellence: 20th- and 21st-Century African American Women's Writings
The Harlem Renaissance:
● Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) / I Sit and Sew (1920)
● Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson / Snow in October (1927)
● Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson / Letters from "Une Femme Dit," 20 Feb. 1926-13 March 1926
● Angelina Weld Grimké (1880-1958) / The Closing Door (1919)
● Angelina Weld Grimké / The Black Finger (1923)
● Anne Spencer (1882-1975) / Before the Feast of Shushan (1920)
● Anne Spencer / The Wife-Woman (1922)
● Anne Spencer / At the Carnival (1923)
● Anne Spencer / Lady, Lady (1925)
● Anne Spencer / Letter to My Sister (1927)
● Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961) / The Sleeper Wakes (1920)
● Jessie Redmon Fauset / from "Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral" (1929): Chapter 1: [Passing]
● Mary Effie Lee Newsome (1885-1979) / The Bronze Legacy (To a Brown Boy) (1922)
● Mary Effie Lee Newsome / Morning Light (The Dew-Drier) (1927)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson (1886-1966) / The Heart of a Woman (1918)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / Your World (1922)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / Motherhood (1922)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / Wishes (1927)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / I Want to Die While You Love Me (1928)
● Georgia Douglas Johnson / "Plumes: A Folk Tragedy" (1927)
● Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) / Sweat (1926)
● Zora Neale Hurston / The Gilded Six-Bits (1933)
● Nella Larsen (1891-1964) / "Passing" (1929)
● Marita Bonner (1899-1971) / On Being Young—a Woman—and Colored (1925)
● Gwendolyn B. Bennett (1902-1981) / Heritage (1923)
● Gwendolyn B. Bennett / To a Dark Girl (1927)
● Helene Johnson (1907-1995) / Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem (1923)
● Helene Johnson / My Race (1925)
● Helene Johnson / Magalu (1927)
The 1940s-1959:
● Dorothy West (1907-1998) / The Typewriter (1926)
● Dorothy West / The Richer the Poorer (1967)
● Ann Petry (1908-1997) / Like a Winding Sheet (1945)
● Margaret Walker (1915-1998) / Ex-Slave (1938)
● Margaret Walker / For My People (1942)
● Margaret Walker / Lineage (1942)
● Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) / Kitchenette Building (1945)
● Gwendolyn Brooks / The Mother (1945)
● Gwendolyn Brooks / We Real Cool (1953)
● Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) / "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959)
Literature of the Black Aesthetic Movement: The 1960s and 1970s:
● Alice Childress (1920-1994) / from "Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life" (1956): Like One of the Family; Ridin' the Bus; All About My Job; Mrs. James; I Hate Half-Days Off
● Naomi Long Madgett (b. 1923) / The Old Women (1978)
● Naomi Long Madgett / Attitude at Seventy-Five (2001)
● Naomi Long Madgett / Gray Strands (2001)
● Maya Angelou (b. 1928) / Still I Rise (1978)
● Paule Marshall (b. 1929) / from "Soul Clap Hands and Sing" (1961): Brooklyn
● Kristin Hunter (b. 1931) / from "Guests in the Promised Land" (1968): Mom Luby and the Social Worker
● Sonia Sanchez (b. 1934) / Homecoming (1969)
● Sonia Sanchez / Poem at Thirty (1969)
● Sonia Sanchez / The Final Solution/ (1969)
● Sonia Sanchez / For Our Lady (1969)
● Sonia Sanchez / Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict (1970)
● June Jordan (1936-2002) / Independence Day in the U.S.A. (1985)
● June Jordan / Song of the Law Abiding Citizen (1985)
● June Jordan / Poem about My Rights (1989)
● June Jordan / Poem for Guatemala (1989)
● June Jordan / The Female and the Silence of a Man (1989)
● June Jordan / Intifada (1989)
● Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) / For Saundra (1968)
● Nikki Giovanni / Nikki-Rosa (1968)
● Carolyn M. Rodgers (b. 1945) / It Is Deep (1968)
● Carolyn M. Rodgers / How I Got Ovah (1968)
Literature of the Second Renaissance: The 1970s and 1980s:
● Toni Morrison (b. 1931) / Recitatif (1995)
● Adrienne Kennedy (b. 1931) / "Motherhood 2000" (1994)
● Audre Lorde (1934-1992) / A Litany for Survival (1978)
● Lucille Clifton (b. 1936) / Homage to My Hips (1980)
● Lucille Clifton / Homage to My Hair (1980)
● Jayne Cortez (b. 1936) / Rape (1984)
● Toni Cade Bambara / from "Gorilla, My Love" (1972): The Lesson; My Man Bovanne
● J. California Cooper (b. 1940) / from "A Piece of Mine" (1984): A Jewel for a Friend
● Barbara Neely (b. 1941) / Spilled Salt (1990)
● Alice Walker (b. 1944) / Roselily (1973)
● Pat Parker (1944-1989) / For the White Person Who Wants to Know How to Be My Friend (1978)
● Sherley Anne Williams (1944-1999) / Any Woman's Blues (1975)
● Sherley Anne Williams / I Want Aretha to Set This to Music (1982)
● Marilyn Nelson Waniek (b. 1946) / The Writer's Wife (1978)
● Marilyn Nelson Waniek / The Lost Daughter (1985)
● Michelle Cliff (b. 1946) / from "Abeng" (1984): Chapter 2, [Nanny, The Sorceress]; Chapter 3
● Octavia Butler (b. 1947) / Bloodchild (1995)
● Ntozake Shange (b. 1948) / from "for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf" (1977): latent rapists
● Ntozake Shange / With No Immediate Cause (1978)
● Jewelle Gomez (b. 1948) / A Swimming Lesson (1986)
● Jewelle Gomez / Don't Explain (1998)
● Alexis De Veaux (b. 1948) / The Woman Who Lives in the Botanical Gardens (1983)
● Gloria Naylor (b. 1950) / from "The Women of Brewster Place" (1982): Kiswana Browne
● Gloria Naylor / from "Mama Day": [Willow Springs]
● Marita Golden (b. 1950) / from "Long Distance Life" (1989): Chapter 3: Naomi
● Rita Dove (b. 1952) / from "Thomas and Beulah" (1986): The Event; Variation on Pain; Motherhood; Daystar
● Jewell Parker Rhodes (b. 1954) / Long Distances (1989)
Literature from the New Millennium: The 1990s to the 21st Century:
● Tina McElroy Ansa (b. 1949) / Willie Bea and Jaybird (1991)
● Bebe Moore Campbell (b. 1950) / from "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine" (1992): Chapter 5: [Two Small Pretty Women Staring Down an Empty Train Track]
● Bebe Moore Campbell / from "Brothers and Sisters" (1994): Chapter 15: [LaKeesha's Job Interview]
● Bebe Moore Campbell / from "What You Owe Me" (2001): Chapter 2: [The Braddock Hotel]
● Terry McMillan (b. 1951) / Ma' Dear (1990)
● Julie Dash (b. 1952) / from "Daughters of the Dust" (1999): The Story of Ibo Landing
● Harryette Mullen (b. 1953) / Denigration (2002)
● Harryette Mullen / Exploring the Dark Continent (2002)
● Harryette Mullen / Souvenir from Anywhere (2002)
● Itabari Njeri (b. 1954) / from "Every Good-Bye Ain't Gone" (1991): Ruby
● Thylias Moss (b. 1954) / The Warmth of Her Chocolate (1993)
● Thylias Moss / Remembering Kitchens (1993)
● Jessica Care Moore (b. 1972) / princess (2003)
● Jessica Care Moore / The poem we have to write before thirty, because people will ask or I don't have a five-year plan! (2003)
● Jessica Care Moore / from "The Revolution in the Ladies Room": Colorstruck! (1997)
● Pearl Cleage (b. 1948) / from "I Wish I Had a Red Dress" (2001): Black Ice
● Tayari Jones (b. 1970) / from "Leaving Atlanta" (2002): The Direction Opposite of Home
Black Feminist Criticism and Womanist Theories:
● Barbara Christian / The Race for Theory (1987)
● Karla Holloway / Revision and (Re)membrace: A Theory of Literary Structures in Literature by African-American Women Writers (1990)
● Audre Lorde / The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House (1984)
● Deborah McDowell / New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism (1980)
● Carla Peterson / from "'Doers of the Word': Theorizing African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the Antebellum North" (1995): The Social Spheres of African-American Women; Black Women and Liminality
About the anthology
● Includes a headnote for each author, and a note on the source of the text, but does not otherwise annotate the works included in the anthology.
● The editor's preface states: "There are many anthologies of American Literature, a growing number of anthologies of women's literature, and several noteworthy ones of African American Literature. "The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature" represents the first comprehensive anthology of its kind. This volume spans all the historical periods from 1746 when Lucy Terry Prince wrote the first work by an African American to the New Millennium texts of Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones. . . . In total, rather than the usual sprinkling of African American women writers found in anthologies, "The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature" parades more than seventy-five authors" (xvii).
● "Equally comprehensive are the many genres that this volume covers"—including: "autobiographies, spiritual narratives, letters, slave narratives, neo-slave narratives, detective fiction, genteel fiction, folk stories, science fiction, romances, historical fiction, melodramas, surrealistic dramas, dramatic monologues, lyrics, ballads, sonnets, choreopoems, prose poems, and all types of genre hybrids" (xvii).
● The editor's preface states: "There are many anthologies of American Literature, a growing number of anthologies of women's literature, and several noteworthy ones of African American Literature. "The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature" represents the first comprehensive anthology of its kind. This volume spans all the historical periods from 1746 when Lucy Terry Prince wrote the first work by an African American to the New Millennium texts of Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones. . . . In total, rather than the usual sprinkling of African American women writers found in anthologies, "The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature" parades more than seventy-five authors" (xvii).
● "Equally comprehensive are the many genres that this volume covers"—including: "autobiographies, spiritual narratives, letters, slave narratives, neo-slave narratives, detective fiction, genteel fiction, folk stories, science fiction, romances, historical fiction, melodramas, surrealistic dramas, dramatic monologues, lyrics, ballads, sonnets, choreopoems, prose poems, and all types of genre hybrids" (xvii).
See also
● Lee, Valerie. "Anthologizing and Theorizing Black Women's Studies." "Signs" 35.4 (2010): 788-96.
Item Number
A0385