Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information the cambridge companion to african american women’s literature The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature covers a period dating back to the eighteenth century. These specially commissioned essays highlight the artistry, complexity and diversity of a literary tradition that ranges from Lucy Terry to Toni Morrison. A wide range of topics are addressed, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts movement, and from the perform- ing arts to popular fiction. Together, the essays provide an invaluable guide to a rich, complex tradition of women writers in conversation with each other as they critique American society and influence American letters. Accessible and vibrant, with the needs of undergraduate students in mind, this Companion will be of great interest to anybody who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of this important and vital area of American literature. angelyn mitchell is Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, Georgetown University. danille k. taylor is Dean of Humanities, Dillard University. A complete list of books in the series is at the back of this book © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE EDITED BY ANGELYN MITCHELL Georgetown University, Washington, DC AND DANILLE K. TAYLOR Dillard University, New Orleans © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521675826 © Cambridge University Press 2009 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2009 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The Cambridge companion to African American women’s literature / edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille Taylor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. isbn 978-0-521-85888-5 1. American literature – African American authors – History and criticism. 2. American literature – Women authors – History and criticism. 3. African American women – Intellectual life. 4. Women and literature – United States – History. 5. African American women in literature. I. Mitchell, Angelyn, 1960– II. Taylor, Danille. III. Title. PS153.N5C343 2009 810.9′9287–dc22 2009005864 isbn 978-0-521-85888-5 hardback isbn 978-0-521-67582-6 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information To our mothers, Gertrude Mann Taylor (1915–2005) and Evelyn Wiggins Mitchell, and to Adam Taylor Guthrie and Carille Mary Nicole Guthrie, my home-Mom © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information La vida es un carnival! – Celia Cruz © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information CONTENTS List of contributors page ix Acknowledgements xii Chronology of major works and events xiii Introduction angelyn mitchell and danille k. taylor 1 i. history, contexts, and criticism 13 1. Early African American women’s literature frances smith foster and larose davis 15 2. Women of the Harlem Renaissance cheryl a. wall 32 3. Women writers of the Black Arts movement eleanor w. traylor 50 4. Contemporary African American women writers dana a. williams 71 5. African American feminist theories and literary criticism robert j. patterson 87 ii. genre, gender, and race 107 6. African American women and the United States slave narrative joycelyn moody 109 7. Autobiography and African American women’s literature joanne m. braxton 128 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information contents 8. “Even some fiction might be useful”: African American women novelists madhu dubey 150 9. African American women poets and the power of the word keith d. leonard 168 10. African American women in the performing arts olga barrios 187 11. African American women writers of children’s and young adult literature dianne johnson 210 12. African American women essayists marilyn sanders mobley 224 13. African American women writers and the short story crystal j. lucky 245 14. African American women writers and popular fiction: theorizing black womanhood herman beavers 262 Bibliography 278 Index 301 viii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information CONTRIBUTORS OLGA BARRIOS is a professor in the department of English Studies, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. She is the co-editor of Contemporary Literature in the African Diaspora (1997) and The Family in Africa and the African Diaspora: A Multidisciplinary Approach (2003). HERMAN BEAVERS is an associate professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Wrestling Angels into Song: The Fictions of Ernest J. Gaines and James Alan McPherson (1995), as well as over twenty-five articles and book chapters. He guest-edited issues of both African American Review and Narrative, and he either served or is serving on the editorial boards of American Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, Modern Literary Studies, and African American Review. His creative works include the chapbook, A Neighborhood of Feeling (1986). JOANNE M. BRAXTON is the Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor of English and Humanities at the College of William and Mary. She is the author of Black Women Writing Autobiography (1989) and the editor of Wild Women in the Whirlwind: Afra-American Culture and the Contemporary Literary Renaissance (1990), The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1993), and Monuments of the Black Atlantic: Slavery and Memory (2004). LAROSE DAVIS, who recently earned a Ph.D. at Emory University, is a lecturer of English at Spelman College. MADHU DUBEY is a professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She is the author of Black Women Novelists and the Nationalist Aesthetic (1994)andSigns and Cities: Black Literary Postmodernism (2003). She is currently working on a book about Octavia Butler. FRANCES SMITH FOSTER is Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Emory University. She has authored, edited, or co-edited ten books and numerous articles, including Written by Herself: Literary Production by ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85888-5 - The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature Edited by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor Frontmatter More information list of contributors African American Women,(1993), 1746–1892, Minnie’s Sacrifice, Sowing and Reaping, Trial and Triumph: Three Rediscovered Novels by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1994), Norton Critical Edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (2001), The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (1997), and The Oxford Companion to African American Literature (1997). DIANNE JOHNSON is a professor of English at the University of South Carolina. She is editor of The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, vol. ii: The Works for Children (2003) and The Brownies’ Book (1996). She is the author (under the name Dina Johnson) of All Around Town (1998), Sunday Week (1999), Quinnie Blue (2000), and Sitting Pretty (2000). KEITH D. LEONARD is an associate professor of English at American University, Washington, DC, where he teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century American