224 p, Contains: Introduction: The problems of literary Blackness in Latin America -- pt. 1. Early literature (1821-1921): In the beginning: oral literature and the "true Black experience" -- Slave poetry and slave narrative: Juan Francisco Manzano and Black autobiography -- Slave societies and the free Black writer: José Manuel Valdés and "Plácido" -- From antislavery to antiracism: Martín Morúa Delgado, Black novelist, politician, and critic of postabolitionist Cuba -- Cultural nationalism and the emergence of literary Blackness in Colombia: the originality of Candelario Obeso -- The Black swan: Gaspar Octavio Hernández, Panama's Black modernist poet -- pt. 2. Major period (1922-49): The turning point: the Blackening of Nicolás Guillén and the impact of his Motivos de son -- The Black writer, the Black press, and the Black Diaspora in Uruguay -- Juan Pablo Sojo and the Black novel in Venezuela -- Adalberto Ortiz and his Black Ecuadorian classic -- Literary Blackness in Colombia: the novels of Arnoldo Palacios -- pt. 3. Contemporary authors (1950- ): Literary Blackness in Colombia: the ideological development of Manuel Zapata Olivella -- Literary Blackness and Third Worldism in recent Ecuadorian fiction: the novels of Nelson Estupiñán Bass -- Folk forms and formal literature: revolution and the Black poet-singer in Ecuador, Peru, and Cuba -- Return to the origins: the Afro-Costa Rican literature of Quince Duncan -- Ebe Yiye -"the future will be better": an update on Panama from Black Cubena -- Conclusion: Prospects for a Black aesthetic in Latin America.
