268 p., This study used a Black feminist critical framework to examine the conditions that influence the production of black women's fiction during the postwar era (1945-60). The novels of Ann Petry, Dorothy West and Paule Marshall were studied as artifacts that were shaped by the cultural and political climate of this crucial period in American history. A survey was also conducted of their associations with members and organizations in the American Left to determine what impact their social activism had on their lives and art. It was determined that these writers' political engagement played a significant role in the creation of transformative narratives about the power of black women to resist oppression in all of its forms. As a consequence of their contribution to a rich black feminist literary tradition, these postwar black women fiction writers serve as important foremothers to later generations of black women artists.
164 p., Traces the journey of blacks from the Middle Passage through urban migration northward in black fiction. Argues that the historical use of religious rhetoric is transcended in black writing of the 20th century in order to recast black victimization during slavery, counter the progress of turn-of-the-century white supremacy, and chronicle the rise of economic racism which created the 20th century black ghetto. The religious doctrines discussed in this study include Puritan missionizing and heretical purges in I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem , the social work of the Catholic church in Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South , and the cultural intensity of the Pentecostal/Apostolic church in Go Tell It on the Mountain.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
187 p., Alas/ Graciela Rojas Sucre-- Y se hicieron amigos/Alicia Castro Argüello-- Amor de mulata/ Argentina Díaz Lozano-- La sombra de la otra/Victoria Urbano -- El negro/Leonor Paz y Paz -- El penador/ Luisita Aguilera Patiño -- Juan Negro / Dina del Carmen Rodas Jerez --Al negro le pagan por bailar /Matilde Elena López --Siervo de siervos/Rima de Vallbona -- ¿Hombre raro o sensitivo? / Catalina Barrios y Barrios -- ¿Y yo?/ Julieta Pinto -- Amor se escribe con G/ Rosa María Britton -- El horno de la vida / Bertalicia Peralta -- La aristócrata y su mulato /Irma Prego -- El talingo / Consuelo Tomás -- Cuando Claudina camina /Consuelo Tomás -- Hay que tener vergüenza/ Moravia Ochoa López -- El secreto de Lola / Moravia Ochoa López -- El veredicto / María Dávila -- Atrapado / Aída Judith González Castrellón -- El mulato/ Marta Susana Prieto; Includes biblipgraphical references ( 175-186)
