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Summary
Summary
Welcomed on publication as "brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from," The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was adopted at more than 1,275 colleges and universities worldwide. Now, the new Second Edition offers these highlights.
Author Notes
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, West Virginia. He received a degree in history from Yale University in 1973 and a Ph.D. from Clare College, which is part of the University of Cambridge in 1979. He is a leading scholar of African-American literature, history, and culture. He began working on the Black Periodical Literature Project, which uncovered lost literary works published in 1800s. He rediscovered what is believed to be the first novel published by an African-American in the United States. He republished the 1859 work by Harriet E. Wilson, entitled Our Nig, in 1983.
He has written numerous books including Colored People: A Memoir, A Chronology of African-American History, The Future of the Race, Black Literature and Literary Theory, and The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. In 1991, he became the head of the African-American studies department at Harvard University. He is now the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at the university.
He wrote and produced several documentaries including Wonders of the African World, America Beyond the Color Line, and African American Lives. He has also hosted PBS programs such as Wonders of the African World, Black in Latin America, and Finding Your Roots.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Collaborating on The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay have compiled what may be the definitive collection of its kind. Organized chronologically, the massive work gathers writings from six periods of black history: slavery and freedom; Reconstruction; the Harlem Renaissance; Realism, Naturalism and Modernism; the Black Arts Movement and the period since the 1970s. The work begins with the vernacular tradition of spirituals, gospel and the blues; continues through work songs, jazz and rap; ranges through sermons and folktales; and embraces letters and journals, poetry, short fiction, novels, autobiography and drama. BOMC selection; companion audio CD. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Gr. 8^-12. Spanning 250 years, this great literary anthology begins with a grand selection from the oral tradition and moves forward in time with historical commentary and selections from 118 poets and writers.
Choice Review
If Norton anthologies define the canon, then, with the publication of this volume, African American literature is now assured inclusion. Comprising the works of 120 writers (almost half women), the anthology makes a wide range of genres readily available to college instructors interested in preparing courses on African American literature. The volume is intelligently divided into seven sections: "Vernacular Tradition"; "Literature of Slavery and Freedom"; Literature of the Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance"; "Harlem Renaissance"; "Realism, Naturalism, Modernism"; "Black Arts Movement"; and "Literature since 1970." Particularly innovative is the "Vernacular Tradition" section: it includes selections from spirituals, gospel, the blues, secular rhymes and songs, ballads and work songs, jazz, rap, sermons, and folktales. With a star lineup of coeditors, each section is introduced and edited by leading scholars who provide thoughtful overviews and analyses. Any anthology fights against space limitation, and although this one omits some significant works by Zore Neale Hurston and includes nothing by Gayl Jones, it fortunately publishes many longer texts in their entirety--e.g., Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life, W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, Jean Toomer's Cane, Toni Morrison's Sula, August Wilson's Fences, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. All collections. D. J. Rosenthal Case Western Reserve University
Library Journal Review
In this anthology, blues, gospel, jazz, rap, and sermons take center stage. In close proximity are poetry, fiction, drama, and autobiography by major authors like Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Toni Morrison. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
