Norton Anthology AA Literature

Norton Anthology AA Literature

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This book is an "Absolute Must" for every African-American home library. The editors of this tremendous collection are a veritable "Who's Who's" list of African American literature.

"A classic of splendid proportions." - Cornel West

Norton Anthology of African American Literature
Henry Louis Gates, Nellie Y. McKay (Editor)
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ISBN: 0393040011
Format: Hardcover, 2665pp
Pub. Date: November 1996
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.

This landmark anthology includes the work of 120 writers over two centuries, from the earliest known work by an African American, Lucy Terry's poem "Bars Fight, " to the fiction of the Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison and the poems of the U.S. Poet Laureate, Rita Dove.

"If Norton anthologies define the canon, then, with the publication of this volume, African American literature is now assured inclusion. . . . With a star lineup of coeditors, each section is introduced and edited by leading scholars who provide thoughtful overviews and analyses. Any anthology fights against space limitation, and although this one omits some significant works by Zora Neale Hurston and includes nothing by Gayl Jones, it fortunately publishes many longer texts in their entirety--e.g., Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life, W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, Jean Toomer's Cane, Toni Morrison's Sula, August Wilson's Fences, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. "
—D.J. Rosenthal, Choice

The Editors:

Henry Louis Gates Jr General Editor W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of Humanities, Chair of the Afro-American Studies Department, Harvard University University of Cambridge Ph.D.	Nellie Y. McKay General Editor Professor of American and Afro-American Literature, University of Wisconsin, Madison Harvard Ph.D.
William Andrews E. Maynard Adams Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Ph.D.	Houston A. Baker Jr. Albert M Greenfield Professor of Human Relations, Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Study of Black Literature abd Culture, University of Pennsylvania UCLA Ph.D.
Barbara T. Christian Professor of African American Literature, University of California, Berkeley Columbia University Ph.D.	Frances Smith Foster Professor of English and Women's Studies, Emory University University of California, San Diego Ph.D.
Deborah E. McDowell Professor of English, University of Virginia Purdue University Ph.D.	Robert G. O'Meally Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English, Columbia University Harvard Ph.D.
Arnold Rampersad Wood Wilson Professor of Literature and Director of the Program in African-American Studies, Princeton University Harvard Ph.D.	Hortense Spillers Professor of English, Cornell University Brandeis Ph.D.
Richard Yarborough Associate Professor of English and Afro-American Studies, UCLA Stanford Ph.D.

Book Description
Welcomed on publication as "brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from," (Russ Castronovo, University of Miami) The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was adopted at more than 1,275 colleges and universities worldwide. Now, the new Second Edition offers these highlights:

Nine new writers The Second Edition includes nine new writers spanning three centuries: Jupiter Hammon, Venture Smith, Martin Delany, Elizabeth Keckley, Gayl Jones, Caryl Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, Colson Whitehead, and Harryette Mullen.

Strengthened Vernacular Tradition Building on the editors' view that vernacular expression lives in performance, the original Audio Companion CD has been expanded to a two-CD set; Disc 1, Music, includes vocal and instrumental pieces-from ragtime to Motown. Disc 2, Spoken Word, offers 24 speeches, readings, and performances, from Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois to Amiri Baraka and Rita Dove.

11 complete longer works Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America (new); Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; Nella Larsen, Quicksand (new); Richard Wright, The Man Who Lived Underground; Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha; Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; Amiri Baraka, Dutchman; Ed Bullins, Goin'a Buffalo: A Tragifantasy; Adrienne Kennedy, A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White; August Wilson, Joe Turner's Come and Gone (new).

Strengthened Apparatus and a More Readable Format

An extensive, new Selected General Bibliography

Revised—some entirely rewritten—period introductions, headnotes, footnotes, and updated author bibliographies

Updated timeline

A new trim size and bolder typeface for easier reading

Thoroughly Revised "Literature Since 1975" Succeeding the late Barbara Christian, new editor Cheryl A. Wall has included 5 new writers-poet Harryette Mullen and fiction writers Gayl Jones, Caryl Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, and Colson Whitehead. In addition, Wall has rewritten the period introduction and many headnotes in their entirety and updated all apparatus.

Course Guide by Joycelyn A. Moody, University of Washington Thoroughly revised, the Course Guide is now a more helpful resource. It provides a wealth of thematic approaches to teaching with The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, teaching suggestions for individual works, questions and research projects, bibliographic resources for all authors, and a special section on teaching the vernacular traditions. Throughout, the Guide suggests ways to integrate the content of the Audio Companion CDs with the printed texts. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.