Sociology Research Guide

Reading Contemporary African American Literature focuses on the subject of contemporary African American popular fiction by women.

The aims of this work are threefold: to examine how female African American novelists portray domestic abuse (and thus raise awareness about the problem); to outline how literary depictions of domestic violence are responsive to cultural and historical forces; and to explore the literary tradition of novels that deal with domestic abuse within the African American community--a tradition that was begun by Hurston in 1930s and has since flourished and taken different forms, thanks to the diverse body of fiction created by more contemporary African American women writers.

Unbought and Unbossed critically examines the ways black women writers in the 1970s and early 1980s deploy black female characters that transgress racial, gender, and especially sexual boundaries.

Includes chapters on Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow, Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John, Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory, and Sapphire's Push.

Cannot be checked out. More than 4,000 articles cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religion, ethnic groups, organizations and countries on both sides of the Atlantic. African American history and culture in the present-day United States receive a strong emphasis, but the history and culture of blacks throughout the rest of the Americas and their origins in Africa itself have an equally strong presence.

Alphabetically arranged entries discuss the lives, works, and critical reception of more than 150 African American women writers.

Approaches African American literature from a women's studies perspective, and describes the African American cultural experience through literary works. In addition to covering male and female African American authors, this encyclopedia discusses themes, major works and characters, genres, periods, historical events, places, and other topics.

The Oxford Companion to African American Literature provides the first comprehensive one-volume reference work devoted to this rich tradition, surveying the length and breadth of black literary history, focusing in particular on the lives and careers of more than 400 writers.