African American Writers and Classical Tradition

图书信息

作者	Cook, William W.
出版社	University of Chicago Press
ISBN	9780226789989
出版时间	2011-07-06
字数	90.8万
分类	University of Chicago Press,进口书,外文原版书,文学,自传,回忆录

读书简介

Constraints on freedom, education, and individual dignity have always been fundamental in determining who is able to write, when, and where. Considering the singular experience of the African American writer, William W. Cook and James Tatum here argue that African American literature did not develop apart from canonical Western literary traditions but instead grew out of those literatures, even as it adapted and transformed the cultural traditions and religions of Africa and the African diaspora along the way.Tracing the interaction between African American writers and the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome, from the time of slavery and its aftermath to the civil rights era and on into the present, the authors offer a sustained and lively discussion of the life and work of Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, and Rita Dove, among other highly acclaimed poets, novelists, and scholars. Assembling this brilliant and diverse group of African American writers at a moment when our understanding of classical literature is ripe for change, the authors paint an unforgettable portrait of our own reception of "e;classic"e; writing, especially as it was inflected by American racial politics.

目录

Cover

Copyright

Title page

Dedication

Contents

Epigraph

Introduction

1. The Leisure Moments of Phillis Wheatley

2. Frederick Douglass and The Columbian Orator

3. The Making of the Talented Tenth

4. Genteel Classicism

5. Invisible Odyssey

6. The Pindar of Harlem

7. It Is Impossible Not to Write Satire

8. Rita Dove and the Greeks

Notes

Bibliography

Index