The Cambridge Companion to American Civil Rights Literature

This Companion brings together leading scholars to examine the significant traditions, genres, and themes of civil rights literature.

Julie Armstrong (Edited by)

9781107635647, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 March 2015

234 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.3 cm, 0.34 kg

'The collection deftly integrates imperative approaches to canonical works with compelling arguments for the consideration of less regarded texts. Followed by an instructive bibliography, this collection resonates as an invitation for further dialogue and delivers an interdisciplinary grounding upon which future works will surely flourish.' Zachary Manditch-Prottas, Callaloo

The Cambridge Companion to American Civil Rights Literature brings together leading scholars to examine the significant traditions, genres, and themes of civil rights literature. While civil rights scholarship has typically focused on documentary rather than creative writing, and political rather than cultural history, this Companion addresses the gap and provides university students with a vast introduction to an impressive range of authors, including Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, and Toni Morrison. Accessible to undergraduates and academics alike, this Companion surveys the critical landscape of a rapidly growing field and lays the foundation for future studies.

1. The civil rights movement and the literature of social protest Zoe Trodd
2. The dilemma of narrating Jim Crow Brian Norman
3. The Black Arts movement GerShun Avilez
4. Drama and performance from civil rights to Black Arts Nilgün Anadolu-Okur
5. Civil rights movement fiction Julie Buckner Armstrong
6. The white Southern novel and the civil rights movement Christopher Metress
7. Civil rights fictional film Sharon Monteith
8. Civil rights movement poetry Jeffrey Lamar Coleman
9. Gender, sex, and civil rights Robert J. Patterson
10. Twenty-first-century literature: post-black? Post-civil rights? Barbara McCaskill.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS]