What is African American about African American literature? Why identify it as a distinct tradition? John Ernest contends that too often scholars have relied on naive concepts of race, superficial conceptions of African American history, and the marginalization of important strains of black scholarship. With this book, he creates a new and just retelling of African American literary history that neither ignores nor transcends racial history. Ernest revisits the work of nineteenth-century writers and activists such as Henry 'Box' Brown, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Wilson, William Wells Brown, and Sojourner Truth, demonstrating that their concepts of justice were far more radical than those imagined by most white sympathizers. He sheds light on the process of reading, publishing, studying, and historicizing this work during the twentieth century. Looking ahead to the future of the field, Ernest offers new principles of justice that grant fragmented histories, partial recoveries, and still-unprinted texts the same value as canonized works. His proposal is both a historically informed critique of the field and an invigorating challenge to present and future scholars.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
The University of North Carolina Press
ISBN-13
9780807859834
eBay Product ID (ePID)
94736047
Product Key Features
Book Title
Chaotic Justice: Rethinking African American Literary History
Author
John Ernest
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Topic
Social Sciences, Literature
Publication Year
2009
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
328 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
235mm
Item Width
156mm
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
John Ernest
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
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