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- Beginning in the pre- Revolutionary War period, African American writers have engaged in a creative, if often contentious, dialogue with American letters. The result is a literature rich in expressive subtlety and social insight, offering illuminating assessments of American identities and history.
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Apr 30, 2024 · African American literature is the body of literature written by Americans of African descent. Beginning in the pre-Revolutionary War period, African American writers have engaged in a creative, if often contentious, dialogue with American letters.
- Maya Angelou. Acclaimed American poet, author and activist Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. Often referred to as a spokesman for African Americans and women through her many works, her gift of words connected all people who were “committed to raising the moral standards of living in the United States.”
- James Baldwin. Though he spent most of his life living abroad to escape the racial prejudice in the United States, James Baldwin is the quintessential American writer.
- Amiri Baraka. Born in 1934, poet, writer and political activist Amiri Baraka used his writing as a weapon against racism and became one of the most widely published African American writers.
- Octavia Butler. In a genre known for being traditionally white and male, Octavia Butler broke new ground in science fiction as an African American woman.
African American literature explores the issues of freedom and equality long denied to Blacks in the United States, along with further themes such as African American culture, racism, religion, enslavement, a sense of home, [5] segregation, migration, feminism, and more.
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- The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Buy on Amazon. In The Sellout, Paul Beatty introduces us to a young, Black watermelon-and-weed grower, named Me. When Me’s father is gunned down by police, and his hometown Dickens is erased from the map, he decides to face one injustice by burying it beneath another.
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Buy on Amazon. Jemisin’s unmissable, triple Hugo-Award-winning trilogy, The Broken Earth, takes place in the Stillness — a world in which society is structured around surviving nuclear winters.
- Beloved by Toni Morrison. Buy on Amazon. The seminal work from a giant of modern literature, Beloved chronicles the experiences of Sethe, an ex-slave living with her daughter in a house haunted by secrets.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Buy on Amazon. Originally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God was out of print for nearly 30 years, due to its readers’ initial rejection of its strong, Black, female protagonist.
African American literature is the corpus of fictional, dramatic, and poetic works produced by American writers of African descent. To most readers, it’s associated with the boldly experimental output of the Harlem Renaissance — the jazz-inflected, Manhattan-centered artistic movement in the early 20th century that saw Black authors like ...
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Apr 25, 2024 · African American literature. Some of the most exciting and prominent authors of the 21st century are also essential contributors to the impressive canon of African American literature. The authors in this list have published award-winning works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Dec 5, 2022 · December 5, 2022. By Malik Windsor | Black literature is the filling in the cavity of history, the tales of the disenfranchised and long-forgotten recreating truth in the world. Black literature is important because it widens the scope of how Black people have been viewed throughout history.
