Black Configurations

Auteur

Kimberly W. Benston is Francis B. Gummere Professor of English and Africana Studies at Haverford College, where he has also served as Provost and President.

Texte du rabat

Black Configurations is the first volume of a three-volume study of African-American literary history, with special attention to the internal dialogues regarding concepts of "tradition," haunting, trauma, and re-vision. Texts studied extend from slave narratives to contemporary works, including both canonical and lesser-known instances of African-American expression.

Contenu

Volume I: Black Configurations: The Ethos of "Tradition" from Sterling Brown to Toni Morrison- Introduction: The Conceit of Tradition; Sterling Brown: Tradition as Vernacular "Lie"; Zora Neale Hurston: Tradition as Scene of Instruction; Ralph Ellison: Tradition as Tragicomic Encounter; Amiri Baraka; Tradition as the Changing Same; Larry Neal: Tradition as Kuntu Montage; Michael Harper: Tradition as Modal Improvisation; Toni Morrison: Tradition as Traumatic Re-Memory; Volume II: Black Hauntologies: Slavery, Modernity, and Spectral Re-Vision-Introduction: Haints of the Past; Spectral (Re)Origination: Modernity, Slavery, and Traumatic Enuncation; Spectral Revolution: Slavery, Modernity, and the Politics of Conversation; Spectral (Re)Vision: Photography, Archive, and Transgressive Illumination; Conclusion: Ghosts of the Future; Volume III: Black Refigurations: Facing, Naming, and Voicing-Pre-Face: Entering the Master's Book; (E)Facing: Topographical Visions; (Un)Naming: Transgressive Revisions; (Re)Voicing: Transformative Beginnings; Post-Script: Beyond the Copy-Book.