Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary SocietiesDuke University Press, 31 thg 10, 2002 - 423 trang Over the past decade the popularity of black writers including E. Lynn Harris and Terry McMillan has been hailed as an indication that an active African American reading public has come into being. Yet this is not a new trend; there is a vibrant history of African American literacy, literary associations, and book clubs. Forgotten Readers reveals that neglected past, looking at the reading practices of free blacks in the antebellum north and among African Americans following the Civil War. It places the black upper and middle classes within American literary history, illustrating how they used reading and literary conversation as a means to assert their civic identities and intervene in the political and literary cultures of the United States from which they were otherwise excluded. Forgotten Readers expands our definition of literacy and urges us to think of literature as broadly as it was conceived of in the nineteenth century. Elizabeth McHenry delves into archival sources, including the records of past literary societies and the unpublished writings of their members. She examines particular literary associations, including the Saturday Nighters of Washington, D.C., whose members included Jean Toomer and Georgia Douglas Johnson. She shows how black literary societies developed, their relationship to the black press, and the ways that African American women’s clubs—which flourished during the 1890s—encouraged literary activity. In an epilogue, McHenry connects this rich tradition of African American interest in books, reading, and literary conversation to contemporary literary phenomena such as Oprah Winfrey’s book club. |
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Kết quả 1-3 trong 36
... encouraged its readers to consider themselves and as- sume the responsibilities of citizens ; giving voice to their opinions and perspectives through the pages of the newspaper was one way of doing this . Responses to the editors ...
... encouraged to respond to what they read as the basis for further exchange . In this sense , the ability to read was not an end in itself ; it was a part of a larger process of training individuals to claim the authority of language and ...
... encouraged its readers to use their literary skills to acquire cultural literacy . Whereas Freedom's Journal had primarily encouraged black communities to form literary societies and avail themselves of their benefits , the Colored ...
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African American Literary Societies | 23 |
Black Press | 84 |
Literary Coalitions in the Age of Washington | 141 |
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Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary ... Elizabeth McHenry Xem trước bị giới hạn - 2002 |