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 | | The Norton Anthology of African American Literature by Henry Louis Gates (Editor), Nellie Y. McKay (Editor) ISBN-10: 0393040011 ISBN-10: 0-393-04001-1 ISBN-13: 9780393040012 ISBN-13: 978-0-393-04001-2 Hardcover 1996-10 W. W. Norton & Company Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Amazon.com A whopping 2,665 pages, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was 10 years in the making, and it proves to have been well worth the wait. Beginning with vernacular forms such as the spirituals and the blues, it encompasses the whole history of black writing from the poems of Phillis Wheatley to the work of contemporary writers such as Terri McMillan, Toni Morrison, and Charles Johnson. Each section includes an introductory essay, and there is a brief biographical essay for each writer. The anthology includes an audio CD containing recorded examples of many of the songs and speeches. | ||
Book Description Welcomed on publication as "brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from," (Russ Castronovo, University of Miami) 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: Nine new writers The Second Edition includes nine new writers spanning three centuries: Jupiter Hammon, Venture Smith, Martin Delany, Elizabeth Keckley, Gayl Jones, Caryl Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, Colson Whitehead, and Harryette Mullen. Strengthened Vernacular Tradition Building on the editors' view that vernacular expression lives in performance, the original Audio Companion CD has been expanded to a two-CD set; Disc 1, Music, includes vocal and instrumental pieces-from ragtime to Motown. Disc 2, Spoken Word, offers 24 speeches, readings, and performances, from Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois to Amiri Baraka and Rita Dove. 11 complete longer works Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America (new); Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; Nella Larsen, Quicksand (new); Richard Wright, The Man Who Lived Underground; Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha; Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; Amiri Baraka, Dutchman; Ed Bullins, Goin'a Buffalo: A Tragifantasy; Adrienne Kennedy, A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White; August Wilson, Joe Turner's Come and Gone (new). Strengthened Apparatus and a More Readable Format
Thoroughly Revised "Literature Since 1975" Succeeding the late Barbara Christian, new editor Cheryl A. Wall has included 5 new writers-poet Harryette Mullen and fiction writers Gayl Jones, Caryl Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, and Colson Whitehead. In addition, Wall has rewritten the period introduction and many headnotes in their entirety and updated all apparatus. Course Guide by Joycelyn A. Moody, University of Washington Thoroughly revised, the Course Guide is now a more helpful resource. It provides a wealth of thematic approaches to teaching with The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, teaching suggestions for individual works, questions and research projects, bibliographic resources for all authors, and a special section on teaching the vernacular traditions. Throughout, the Guide suggests ways to integrate the content of the Audio Companion CDs with the printed texts. | ||
Reviews | ||
Uninteresting extremely dull I had to purchase the book for school, and I was very displeased and how dull the book was and innaccurate. | ||
Excellent!! The Norton Anthology is a wonderful book. I'm using it as a reference and also to increase my knowledge about African-American Literature. I truly recommend this book to all. | ||
great Brand new and amazing price. Much cheaper than the bookstore at my univeristy. Arrived soon after purchase. | ||
Good Price and No Delays At the school I attend most of these books are unavailble, because they're sold out. Luckily, I got my book online :) with no delays! This book in the bookstore would have cost alot and buying online plus the shipping & handling was still cheaper. | ||
Excellent Canon I noticed that someone asked for a review of this piece, here is something I did when the first edition came out in 1997, for the newspaper I worked for at the time, the Durham Herald-Sun. Published 01/05/97 African-American lit anthology's `heavy' - UNC professor helped as canon was decided for long-awaited book Byline: ERNIE SUGGS The Herald-Sun When discussing African-American literature, the name Victor Sejour doesn't stand out as readily as the likes of Harriet Jacobs, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes and James Baldwin. But the work of the expatriate who left New Orleans for Paris at the age of 20 has just rewritten history. His short story, ``Le Mulatre,'' (The Mulatto) published in France in 1837, now is considered the oldest known work of fiction by an African-American writer. The piece was discovered in 1992 by UNC English Professor William L. Andrews for special inclusion in the new ``Norton Anthology of African American Literature.'' Sejour's work is among dozens by African-American writers, poets, preachers, essayists, singers and even rappers included in the massive tome, which was published Dec. 16. ``Heavy,'' said Duke University's director of Afro-American studies, Karla Holloway, in describing the new anthology. ``This is exactly what we have been waiting for,'' Holloway said. ``It is thorough, the coverage is impressive and it has weight, literally and physically.'' At 2,655 pages, the single, 21/2-pound volume is indeed heavy. But the weight of what is on the pages may be enough to change the way African-American literature is perceived for generations. Henry Louis Gates Jr., W.E.B DuBois professor of humanities and chairman of the Afro-American studies department at Harvard University, was one of two general editors for the book. Gates, who also served briefly as head of Duke University's Afro-American studies program, called the anthology a ``canon'' and said that there never would be another excuse for not being able to find African-American literature. Literary scholars are hailing the text as a breakthrough and calling it revolutionary. College professors are lining up to get it and preparing syllabi to teach it. ``It is the most important anthology of African-American literature that has been published in the 20th century,'' said Andrews, E. Maynard Adams professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ``Not that there haven't been magnificent anthologies -- and this isn't the first one -- but this is the most important because it is the anthology for the second black literary renaissance of the 20th century.'' The anthology is the culmination of 10 years of research by a team of editors and scholars. The team's research dates back to a 1746 poem by Lucy Terry called ``Bar Fights.'' ``In North Carolina, it has always been something that people have asked me about. `When is it coming out? When is it coming out?' '' said Steven Hoge, field editor for New York-based W.W. Norton & Co., which published the anthology. ``I would always say, `Any year now.' '' So diverse is the book that it includes the work of 1993 Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, rap-music godfathers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and Phillis Wheatley -- a slave brought to America from Senegal at the age of 8 who became the first African-American to publish a book in English. ``This is trying to establish a canon,'' said Hoge, who works out of Chapel Hill. ``As a publisher of anthologies, we've always taken the anthology business very seriously.'' Many anthologies of African-American writing have been published -- including ``Les Cenelles'' in 1845 and ``Black Writers of America'' in 1972 -- but this is the first one W.W. Norton has published. There are now 10 ``Nortons,'' all of which are among the most widely used college literature texts. But the ``Norton Anthology of African-American Literature'' is accompanied by a compact disc, which includes speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and jazz pieces by Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Arlene Clift-Pellow, chairwoman of N.C. Central University's department of English, said her department currently is reviewing the book for likely inclusion in students' studies. Holloway said that she will begin teaching Duke students from the text next fall in her introduction to African-American literature classes, and Andrews said that he will start teaching UNC students from it this semester. ``This is a more exciting time,'' Andrews said. ``I had never used an anthology before and I am looking forward to teaching from this one.'' Sejour story hunted Andrews' students will be lucky to work closely with someone who worked on the book's production. Andrews, an expert on African-American literature before 1920, was one of nine section or chapter editors. For his chapter, ``The Literature of Slavery and Freedom: 1746-1865,'' Andrews was responsible for selecting, editing and writing the annotations and introductions for all of the works included. One of the most fascinating finds, by far, was that of Sejour's story. ``Since I am one of the editors of the volume, I wanted to include Sejour's work,'' Andrews said. ``But it was a question of could I find it.'' Andrews said Sejour's short story was known only by a few scholars, and it never had been translated to English. ``Le Mulatre'' was the only piece of fiction that Sejour had ever written, having devoted the rest of his life to drama. He became famous in Europe and never returned to the United States,'' Andrews said. ``Here he is largely forgotten.'' Andrews said that he and a French-speaking colleague, Philip Barnard of the University of Kansas, traveled to France and found the story in the obscure 1837 journal ``La Revue des Colonies'' at the Bibliotheque National in Paris. ``It wasn't so hard to find because Bibliotheque National is such a magnificent library,'' Andrews said. ``The hardest part was getting the service done.'' Andrews said that until this discovery, it had been assumed that the oldest piece of fiction written by an African-American was Frederick Douglass' ``The Heroic Slave.'' That piece, which was written in 1853, was only part fiction. Part was based on a historical event. ``Sejour's story is wholly a fictional tale, and it pre-dates Douglass' by 16 years,'' Andrews said. ``With this story, it moves the history of African-American literature back to 1837.'' Andrews said that his only concerns about the piece were what it was about and whether the story fit among the other writers of the era. ``Le Mulatre'' is the story of a slave born of the rape of a slave by her master. Later, the master rapes his son's wife, and the slave kills him in revenge. Andrews describes Sejour's work in ``Le Mulatre,'' as a cross between Douglass and Edgar Allen Poe. Like Poe's work, the story is gruesome and exhibits extreme psychotic states of mind, Andrews said. ``Then, like Douglass, it's profoundly concerned with freedom and slavery,'' said Andrews, who worked at the University of Kansas before coming to UNC four months ago. Other strengths cited Holloway, a science fiction buff, said she is most impressed with the book's inclusion of Octavia Butler, whose ``Bloodchild'' appears in the ``Literature Since 1970'' chapter. ``Bloodchild'' is a short work of fiction by Butler that challenges contemporary ideas about gender and race in a futuristic way. ``I also like the inclusion of the Black Arts Movement,'' said Holloway, referring to the chapter focusing on 1960 through 1970. ``We have a hard time finding a coherent, well-integrated discussion on it. Now we have one.'' But Holloway, like the book's co-editor Nellie Y. McKay, a professor of American and Afro-American literature at the University of Wisconsin, feels that the section on rap music doesn't belong. ``It's an interesting discussion,'' said Holloway, who attended the book's coming-out party at the Modern Language Convention. ``I just would have argued against it.'' Holloway said the wait for the book has been well worth it and she looks forward to the publication of more African-American anthologies, which are in the works. ``A lot of people see this as competition, but the more choices that we have as a profession, the clearer the weight and substance,'' she said. | ||