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An English Graduate Student in Nashville

The Concise Oxford Companion to African

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
The Oxford Companion to American Literature
Teaching African American Literature: Theory and Practice (Transforming Teaching)
Worrying the Line: Black Women Writers, Lineage, and Literary Tradition (Gender and American Culture)
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ASIN: 019513883X

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This important sourcebook for information about black writers and their craft is a welcome companion to the recently issued Norton Anthology of African American Literature. More to the point, it shows how much black literature, once relegated to the margins, has become mainstream. Here are brief biographies of more than 400 black writers, entries on some 150 works, and a host of entries on characters from novels, stories, and plays. In addition, there are entries on topics such as Afrocentricity (as well as on topics of more general interest, such as the novel), that make this essential for anyone who cares about black literature.

Book Description

A breathtaking achievement, this Concise Companion is a suitable crown to the astonishing production in African American literature and criticism that has swept over American literary studies in the last two decades. It offers an enormous range of writers-from Sojourner Truth to Frederick Douglass, from Zora Neale Hurston to Ralph Ellison, and from Toni Morrison to August Wilson. It contains entries on major works (including synopses of novels), such as Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Richard Wright's Native Son, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. It also incorporates information on literary characters such as Bigger Thomas, Coffin Ed Johnson, Kunta Kinte, Sula Peace, as well as on character types such as Aunt Jemima, Brer Rabbit, John Henry, Stackolee, and the trickster. Icons of black culture are addressed, including vivid details about the lives of Muhammad Ali, John Coltrane, Marcus Garvey, Jackie Robinson, John Brown, and Harriet Tubman. Here, too, are general articles on poetry, fiction, and drama; on autobiography, slave narratives, Sunday School literature, and oratory; as well as on a wide spectrum of related topics. Compact yet thorough, this handy volume gathers works from a vast array of sources--from the black periodical press to women's clubs--making it one of the most substantial guides available on the growing, exciting world of African American literature.

Customer Reviews:

OUTSTANDING RESOURCE.......2001-05-21

Everything that you wanted to know or needed to know about African American Literature is contained in this eight hundred page volume. This comprehensive volume covers the historical and cultural contexts of African American literature that has been too long neglected.

Oxford's Companion encompasses the traditional genres of poetry, fiction and drama but goes beyond them. It gives the same analysis to special genres such as Slave Narratives, Oratory, Folk Literature, etc. that you don't normally find in reference works of this kind. These special features and others give this book a unique spot in reference works of literature.

From the moment I got this volume in my hands, I couldn't put it down. Its numerous essays, brief biographies and analysis of the various hues of African American Literature was overwhelming and enjoyable. A referance guide such as this should be in every home. It is user friendly, informative and entertaining. Most of all it will give you a deeper appreciation of the vast types of African American literature produced throughout the years.

An English Graduate Student in Nashville.......2001-04-25

I purchased this anthology to assist me in my African-American literature class. This book has given me great insight about the literature of African-Americans. Not only does it give great details about the many authors, but it also explains the nature of their many works. I strongly recommend this book to anyone taking an African-American literature course - regardless of the time period.

The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature (Oxford Paperback Reference)

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The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature (Oxford Paperback Reference)
The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (Penguin Dictionary)
The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (Oxford Paperback Reference)
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Oxford Paperback Reference)

ASIN: 0195047710

Book Description

For nearly half a century, James D. Hart's Oxford Companion to American Literature has offered a matchless guided tour through American literary culture, both past and present. Hart now presents the first abridgement of the Companion in a paperback edition, making the entries of the greatest general interest from the original volume available to a much wider audience. Compact and affordable, The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature contains over 2,000 entries, including brief biographies of important authors, plot summaries of individual works, descriptions of important literary movements, and a wealth of information on other aspects of American literary life and history from the Colonial period to the modern era. It devotes approximately 325 of the biographical entries to contemporary writers, introducing such newcomers to the Companion as William Kennedy, Grace Paley, and Raymond Carver. The more specialized and esoteric entries from the original have been omitted. Like its predecessor, The Concise Oxford Companion contains a thorough system of cross references to guide the reader to related information on a given topic, as well as a chronological Index outlining significant events in the literary and social history of the United States.

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature (Oxford Paperback Reference)

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handy English literature reference
The perfect pocket reference to literature

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

English (All) | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books

The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature (Oxford Paperback Reference)
The Oxford Companion to American Literature
The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (Oxford Paperback Reference)
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
The Norton Anthology of English Literature

ASIN: 0192800396

Book Description

Based on the bestselling Oxford Companion to English Literature, this is an indispensable, compact guide to all aspects of English literature. For this revised edition, existing entries have been fully updated and 60 new entries have been added on contemporary writers, such as Peter Acroyd, Martin Amis, Toni Morrison, and Jeanette Winterson. Detailed new appendices include a chronology of English literature, and a listing of major literary prize-winners.

Customer Reviews:

handy English literature reference .......2007-05-22

This is a compact version of the 6th edition of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. The emphasis is naturally on British literature (John Galt is not listed as a character in Atlas Shrugged, but as a Scottish novelist). There is coverage of writers from the United States, Canada, Africa, the Caribbean, and India.

Among the entries are:
- short biographies of novelists, dramatists and poets, and also a few philosophers (Swedenborg), historians, scholars, critics, biographers, travel writers, and journalists
- plot summaries and descriptions of poems

Other notable entries:
- literary and intellectual movements, genres, and critical theory
- figures in Irish mythology
- gay and lesbian literature
- literary societies, libraries, publishers, and even coffee houses

Certain topics get a two-page treatment. (Black British literature, science fiction, structuralism and post-structuralism, ghost stories, post-colonial literature, romantic fiction, spy fiction, etc.)

There's no editorializing. They "describe and characterize rather than judge."

The perfect pocket reference to literature.......2000-03-19

This book fills a niche, and does so perfectly. I wanted a reference work for literature, but I didn't want to pay $50 for one. This book gives short, concise blurbs, which is often all one needs. It is organized well and is inclusive enough for the average household. Not a book for specialists, but excellent for the layperson and student.

Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature, The

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Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature, The
James D. (editor) Hart
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OK4QCO

The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature

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The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1402892969

Product Description

Average customer rating:

Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature, The
James D. (editor) Hart
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press (N.Y.)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K3GRMM

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