An Anthology of Interracial Literature: Black-White Contacts in the Old World and the New Contributor(s): Sollors, Werner (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0814781438 ISBN-13: 9780814781432 Publisher: New York University Press OUR PRICE: $88.11 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 2004 Annotation: View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction. "Thanks again to Werner Sollors for oxygenating our thoughts on race and identity, and their relationship to that holy dunce, the literary imagination. Intelligently multicultural, this compendium provokes and entertains even as it exposes still-live nerves. Sollors' scholarship is erudite but relevant; his choices speak with tactful passion about matters which touch us all." "Many startling textual artifacts included." "The first in English devoted to work that Mr. Sollors says has typically been overlooked, an orphan literature belonging to no clear ethnic or national tradition." "The scope of this collection is impressive. The introduction is invaluable, providing much-needed context. The volume's topic and scope make it a valuable resource." "No one has done more important work to place interracial association at the center of American culture than Werner Sollors. This extraordinarily rich anthology is an excellent addition to the study of this fascinating subject." "Werner Sollors's dazzling collection will enrich our understanding of constructions of race and identity in fresh and provocative ways and will intrigue anyone who cares about literature." "An essential book for those contending with race and literature. With this collection it is clear that race is a category that has been marked both as a boundary that cannot be crossed and as a separation that isconstantly breached. A necessary and crucial contribution." "Recommended for academic libraries and for any reader working around the race rubric" A white knight meets his half-black half-brother in battle. A black hero marries a white woman. A slave mother kills her child by a rapist-master. A white-looking person of partly African ancestry passes for white. A master and a slave change places for a single night. An interracial marriage turns sour. The birth of a child brings a crisis. Such are some of the story lines to be found within the pages of An Anthology of Interracial Literature. This is the first anthology to explore the literary theme of black-white encounters, of love and family stories that cross--or are crossed by--what came to be considered racial boundaries. The anthology extends from Cleobolus' ancient Greek riddle to tormented encounters in the modern United States, visiting along the way a German medieval chivalric romance, excerpts from "Arabian Nights" and Italian Renaissance novellas, scenes and plays from Spain, Denmark, England, and the United States, as well as essays, autobiographical sketches, and numerous poems. The authors of the selections include some of the great names of world literature interspersed with lesser-known writers. Themes of interracial love and family relations, passing, and the figure of the Mulatto are threaded through the volume. An Anthology of Interracial Literature allows scholars, students, and general readers to grapple with the extraordinary diversity in world literature. As multi-racial identification becomes more widespread the ethnic andcultural roots of world literature takes on new meaning. Contributors include: Hans Christian Andersen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charles W. Chesnutt, Lydia Maria Child, Kate Chopin, Countee Cullen, Caroline Bond Day, Rita Dove, Alexandre Dumas, Olaudah Equiano, Langston Hughes, Victor Hugo, Charles Johnson, Adrienne Kennedy, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Guy de Maupassant, Claude McKay, Eugene O'Neill, Alexander Pushkin, and Jean Toomer. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Collections - Literary Criticism | American - African American - Language Arts & Disciplines | Rhetoric |
Dewey: 808.803 |
LCCN: 2003056105 |
Physical Information: 1.38" H x 7.12" W x 10.14" (2.97 lbs) 675 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Multicultural |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: A white knight meets his half-black half-brother in battle. A black hero marries a white woman. A slave mother kills her child by a rapist-master. A white-looking person of partly African ancestry passes for white. A master and a slave change places for a single night. An interracial marriage turns sour. The birth of a child brings a crisis. Such are some of the story lines to be found within the pages of An Anthology of Interracial Literature. |
Contributor Bio(s): Sollors, Werner: - Werner Sollors is Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of Afro-American Studies and Chair of the History of American Civilization Program at Harvard University. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Multilingual Anthology of American Literature, Theories of Ethnicity: A Classical Reader, and Multilingual America: Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and the Languages of American Literature, all available from NYU Press. |