The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel

Combining scholarship covering one hundred fifty years of novel writing in the U.S., newly commissioned essays examine eighty African American novels. They include well-known works as well as writings recently recovered or acknowledged. The collection features essays on the slave narrative, coming of age, vernacular modernism, and the post-colonial novel to help readers gain a better appreciation of the African American novel's diversity and complexity.

The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel presents new essays covering the one hundred and fifty year history of the African American novel. Experts in the field from the US and Europe address some of the major issues in the genre: passing, the Protest novel, the Blues novel, and womanism among others. The essays are full of fresh insights for students into the symbolic, aesthetic, and political function of canonical and non-canonical fiction. Chapters examine works by Ralph Ellison, Leon Forrest, Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker, John Edgar Wideman, and many others. They reflect a range of critical methods intended to prompt new and experienced readers to consider the African American novel as a cultural and literary act of extraordinary significance. This volume, including a chronology and guide to further reading, is an important resource for students and teachers alike.

Notes on contributors; Chronology; Introduction Maryemma Graham; Part I. The Long Journey: The African American Novel and History: 1. Freeing the voice, creating the self: the novel and slavery Chris Mulvey; 2. Reconstructing the race: the novel after slavery M. Guilia Fabi; 3. The novel of the New Negro Renaissance George Hutchinson; 4. Caribbean migration, ex-isles, and the New World novel Giselle Liza Anatol; Part II. Search for a Form: The New American Novel: 5. The neo slave narrative Ashraf H. A. Rushdy; 6. Coming of age in the African American novel Claudine Raynaud; 7. The blues novel Steven Tracy; 8. From modernism to post modernism: black culture at the crossroads Fritz Gysin; 9. The African American novel and popular culture Susanne Dietzel; Part III: African American Voices: From Margin to Center: 10. Everybody's protest novel: the era of Richard Wright Jerry W. Ward, Jr.; 11. Finding common ground: Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin Herman Beavers; 12. American neo-hoodooism: the novels of Ishmael Reed Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure; 13. Spaces for readers: the novels of Toni Morrison Marilyn Mobley Mckenzie; 14. African American womanism: from Zora Neale Hurston to Alice Walker Lovalerie King; 15. Vernacular modernism in the novels of John Edgar Wideman and Leon Forrest Keith Byerman.

This Companion presents new essays covering the one hundred and fifty year history of the African American novel. Experts in the field from the US and Europe address some of the major issues in the genre: passing, the Protest novel, the Blues novel, and womanism among others.