Category: african american literature

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Iceberg Slim’s “Lonely Suite” and the Gothic

Throughout Iceberg Slim’s literary career, he wrote to dissuade his readers away from the Life. As such, his stories of the urban ghettos of Chicago and the Midwest served as not just political critiques on an oppressive system but also as didactic narratives. Of course, some individuals misread these cues, as Slim himself writes about in “Rappin About the Pimp Game.” Today, I want … Read More Iceberg Slim’s “Lonely Suite” and the Gothic

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Why We Teach: Literature and the Presidential Election

In the Republic, Plato famously claims that there is a longstanding quarrel between philosophy and poetry, even stating that poets are nothing more than imitators and cannot relate truth to their audience, thus perverting them: “the tragic poet is an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king and from the truth.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Nature (1836), … Read More Why We Teach: Literature and the Presidential Election

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Tumblr, Blogger, and Wikis in the Literature Classroom

Over the past few months, I have posted different pedagogical approaches that I have implemented in the classroom from the elevator pitch in the composition classroom to the use of archival materials in the literature classroom. Today, I want to take the moment and expand upon a couple of projects that I have used in the literature classroom.

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Phillis Wheatley’s “To Maecenas” and Subversion

If you enjoy what you read here at Interminable Rambling, think about making a contribution on our Patreon page.  While some critics see Phillis Wheatley as a poet who does not address racism and slavery in her poetry, some, like Frances Smith Foster, read the poet as revising “traditional poetic forms and language to accommodate new messages” and to ultimately present her writing as … Read More Phillis Wheatley’s “To Maecenas” and Subversion

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“Theresa, A Haytian Tale” and the “Tropical Sublime”

Thirteen years before Victor Sejour’s “The Mulatto” (1841), S’s serialized story “Theresa, A Haytien Tale” (1828) appeared in the Freedom’s Journal between January 18 and February 15, 1828. Now, scholars believe that S’s  story is the first short story by an African American author; however, there may be something else tucked away in a library, archive, or collection somewhere in the world. Whether or … Read More “Theresa, A Haytian Tale” and the “Tropical Sublime”