On the shelf at CCBC Libraries
The American Novel Now by
The American Novel Now navigates the vast terrain of the American novel since 1980, exploring issues of identity, history, family, nation, and aesthetics, as well as cultural movements and narrative strategies from over seventy different authors and novels. Discusses an exceptionally wide-range of authors and novels, from established figures to significant emerging writers Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Louise Erdrich, Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Kathy Acker and many more Explores the range of themes and styles offered in the wealth of contemporary American fiction since 1980, in both mainstream and experimental writings Reflects the liveliness and diversity of American fiction in the last thirty years Written in a style that makes it ideal for students and scholars, while also accessible for general readers
Call Number: PS379 .O35 2011Publication Date: 2010
The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes by
" Langston Hughes was one of the most important American writers of his generation and one of the most versatile, producing poetry, fiction, drama, and autobiography. In this innovative study, R. Baxter Miller explores Hughes's life and art in an effort to broaden our appreciation of his contribution to American letters.
Publication Date: 1989
The Columbia guide to contemporary African American fiction by Call Number: REF.PS374.N4 D533 2005ISBN: 0231124724Publication Date: 2005
Goodness and the Literary Imagination by
What exactly is goodness? Where is it found in the literary imagination? Toni Morrison, one of American letters? greatest voices, pondered these perplexing questions in her celebrated Ingersoll Lecture, delivered at Harvard University in 2012 and published now for the first time in book form. Perhaps because it is overshadowed by the more easily defined evil, goodness often escapes our attention. Recalling many literary examples, from Ahab to Coetzee?s Michael K, Morrison seeks the essence of goodness and ponders its significant place in her writing. She considers the concept in relation to unforgettable characters from her own works of fiction and arrives at conclusions that are both eloquent and edifying. In a lively interview conducted for this book, Morrison further elaborates on her lecture?s ideas, discussing goodness not only in literature but in society and history?particularly black history, which has responded to centuries of brutality with profound creativity. Morrison?s essay is followed by a series of responses by scholars in the fields of religion, ethics, history, and literature to her thoughts on goodness and evil, mercy and love, racism and self-destruction, language and liberation, together with close examination of literary and theoretical expressions from her works. Each of these contributions, written by a scholar of religion, considers the legacy of slavery and how it continues to shape our memories, our complicities, our outcries, our lives, our communities, our literature, and our faith. In addition, the contributors engage the religious orientation in Morrison?s novels so that readers who encounter her many memorable characters such as Sula, Beloved, or Frank Money will learn and appreciate how Morrison?s notions of goodness and mercy also reflect her understanding of the sacred and the human spirit.
Call Number: PS3563.O8749 Z6535 2019ISBN: 9780813943626Publication Date: 2019
In Search of the Color Purple by
Mixing cultural criticism, literary history, biography, and memoir, an exploration of Alice Walker's critically acclaimed and controversial novel, The Color Purple Alice Walker made history in 1983 when she became the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple. Published in the Reagan era amid a severe backlash to civil rights, the Jazz Age novel tells the story of racial and gender inequality through the life of a 14-year-old girl from Georgia who is haunted by domestic and sexual violence. Prominent academic and activist Salamishah Tillet combines cultural criticism, history, and memoir to explore Walker's epistolary novel and shows how it has influenced and been informed by the zeitgeist. The Color Purple received both praise and criticism upon publication, and the conversation it sparked around race and gender still continues today. It has been adapted for an Oscar-nominated film and a hit Broadway musical. Through archival research and interviews with Walker, Oprah Winfrey, and Quincy Jones (among others), Tillet studies Walker's life and how themes of violence emerged in her earlier work. Reading The Color Purple at age 15 was a groundbreaking experience for Tillet. It continues to resonate with her--as a sexual violence survivor, as a teacher of the novel, and as an accomplished academic. Provocative and personal, In Search of The Color Purple is a bold work from an important public intellectual, and captures Alice Walker's seminal role in rethinking sexuality, intersectional feminism, and racial and gender politics.
Call Number: PS3573.A425 C638 2021Publication Date: 2021
Women's Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women's Novels by
In "Women s Work, " Courtney Thorsson reconsiders the gender, genre, and geography of African American nationalism as she explores the aesthetic history of African American writing by women. Building on and departing from the Black Arts Movement, the literary fiction of such writers as Toni Cade Bambara, Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, Ntozake Shange, and Toni Morrison employs a cultural nationalism practiced by their characters as "women's work" that defines a distinct contemporary literary movement, demanding attention to the continued relevance of nation in post Black Arts writing. Identifying five forms of women's work as organizing, dancing, mapping, cooking, and inscribing, Thorsson shows how these writers reclaimed and revised cultural nationalism to hail African America."
Publication Date: 2013
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Harriet Beecher Stowe by
Twaynes United States Authors Series presents concise critical introductions to great writers and their works. Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an authors work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volumeaddresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writers work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading theAuthors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives. Each volume features: A critical, interpretive study and explication of the authors works A brief biography of the author An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography and an index A readable style presented in a manageable length
Publication Date: 1989
James Fenimore Cooper by
Twaynes United States Authors Series presents concise critical introductions to great writers and their works. Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an authors work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volumeaddresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writers work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading theAuthors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives. Each volume features: A critical, interpretive study and explication of the authors works A brief biography of the author An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography and an index A readable style presented in a manageable length
Publication Date: 1988
Many More Lives of the Batman by
The Many Lives of the Batman (1991) was a pioneer within cultural and comic book scholarship. This fresh new sequel retains the best of the original chapters but also includes images, new chapters and new contributions from the Batman writers and editors. Spanning 75 years and multiple incarnations, this is the definitive history of Batman.
Publication Date: 2015
Rediscovering Hawthorne by
Starting from Hawthorne's statement that his works are attempts to open an intercourse with the world, Kenneth Dauber examines them to see how they serve as acts of communication. Thus his investigation of a major American writer studies Hawthorne as a craftsman, explores the conditions under which various interpretations of literature are possible, and lays the foundation for a new theory of genres. The author begins with a brief history of American criticism from the rediscovery of classic American letters to the present. He traces the development of historicism and formalism as the two major strains of native critical thought and demonstrates their specific limitations in connection with a study of Hawthorne's allegory. By redefining literature according to Hawthorne's work and reexamining the role of the critic in view of the circumstances of American letters, Professor Dauber is able to propose a native poetics. Central to the author's theory is the concept of genre as a pre-existing structure with which Hawthorne battled and through which he sought communion. This ambivalence is analyzed in chapters on the four novels and selected stories. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Publication Date: 2015
Understanding James Baldwin by
The Harlem-born son of a storefront preacher, James Baldwin died almost thirty years ago, but his spirit lives on in the eloquent and still-relevant musings of his novels, short stories, essays, and poems. What concerned him most - as a black man, as a gay man, as an American - were notions of isolation and disconnection at both the individual and communal level and a conviction that only in the transformative power of love could humanity find any hope of healing its spiritual and social wounds. In Understanding James Baldwin, Marc K. Dudley shows that a proper grasp of Baldwin's work begins with a grasp of the times in which he wrote. During a career spanning the civil rights movement and beyond, Baldwin stood at the heart of intellectual and political debate, writing about race, sexual identity, and gendered politics, while traveling the world to promote dialogue on those issues. In surveying the writer's life, Dudley traces the shift in Baldwin's aspirations from occupying the pulpit like his stepfather to becoming a writer amid the turmoil of sexual self-discovery and the harsh realities of American racism and homophobia. The book's analyses of key works in the Baldwin canon - among them, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni's Room, ""Sonny's Blues,"" Another Country, The Fire Next Time, and The Devil Finds Work - demonstrate the consistency, contrary to some critics' claims, of Baldwin's vision and thematic concerns. As police violence against people of color, a resurgence in white supremacist rhetoric, and pushback against LGBTQ rights fill today's headlines, James Baldwin's powerful and often-angry words find a new resonance. From early on, Baldwin decried the damning potential of alienation and the persistent bigotry that feeds it. Yet, even as it sometimes wavered, his hope for both the individual and the nation remained intact. In the present historical moment, James Baldwin matters more than ever.
ISBN: 9781611179644Publication Date: 2019
On Shelf at CCBC Libraries
The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel by
Since the graphic novel rose to prominence half a century ago, it has become one of the fastest growing literary/artistic genres, generating interest from readers globally. The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel examines the evolution of comic books into graphic novels and the distinct development of this art form both in America and around the world. This Companion also explores the diverse subgenres often associated with it, such as journalism, fiction, historical fiction, autobiography, biography, science fiction and fantasy. Leading scholars offer insights into graphic novel adaptations of prose works and the adaptation of graphic novels to films; analyses of outstanding graphic novels, like Maus and The Walking Man; an overview which distinguishes the international graphic novel from its American counterpart; and analyses of how the form works and what it teaches, making this book a key resource for scholars, graduate students and undergraduate students alike.
Call Number: PN6710 .C34 2017ISBN: 9781107108790Publication Date: 2017
Moby Dick by
This Norton Critical Edition includes: * Melville's classic novel of whaling and revenge, based on Hershel Parker's revision of the 1967 text edited by Harrison Hayford and Hershel Parker. * Twenty-six illustrations, including maps, contemporary engravings, and diagrams of whaleboat rigging. * Background and source materials centering on whaling and whalecraft, Melville's international reception, the inspirations for Moby-Dick, and Melville's related correspondence. * Forty-four reviews and interpretations of the novel spanning three centuries. * A revised and updated Selected Bibliography. About the Series Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format--annotated text, contexts, and criticism--helps students to better understand, analyze, and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.
Call Number: PS2384 .M6 2018Publication Date: 2017
