Category: african american literature

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+ african american literature, american literature, e.w. kemble, ernest j gaines, louisiana literature, of love and dust, paul laurence dunbar, southern literature, Uncategorized

What Does the Cover Say?

by Unknown's avatar

One topic that has always interested me is the visual representations of literary works. Visual artists from Gustave Dore and E.W. Kemble illustrated everything from Dante’s Divine Comedy (1320) to Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories (1900). Thinking about these visual representations along with the text provides an interesting conversation, not just regarding how the images and texts interact but how … Read More What Does the Cover Say?

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+ african american literature, american literature, ernest j gaines, louisiana literature, southern literature, Uncategorized, william faulkner, william melvin kelley

Constructing the “Past”

by Unknown's avatar

At the end of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! (1936), Quentin and Shreve construct, without knowing the “true” events, the burning of the Sutpen house. Describing “the driver and the deputy” pulling Miss Colfield out of the inflamed house, the narrator states, “he (Quentin) could see her, them; he had not been there, but he could see her” (376). The construction of that scene conflates … Read More Constructing the “Past”

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+ a gathering of old men, african american literature, american literature, ernest j gaines, louisiana literature, southern literature, Uncategorized

Land in Ernest J. Gaines’s “A Gathering of Old Men”

by Unknown's avatar

Last post, I wrote about the appearance of the pronoun “they” in Ernest J. Gaines’s “The Sky is Gray.” In that story, “they” appears as a reference to ownership and power in the community that seeks to keep James and Octavia is subjugation so the invisible white landowners can maintain their position at the top of the social ladder. As James looks out of … Read More Land in Ernest J. Gaines’s “A Gathering of Old Men”

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+ african american literature, american literature, ernest j gaines, jesus christ, southern literature, temptation of Christ, the autobiography of miss jane pittman, Uncategorized

Miss Jane Pittman and the Temptation of Christ

by Unknown's avatar

After John the Baptist baptizes Jesus Christ in the gospels, Jesus goes into the desert for forty days and forty nights before beginning his ministry. During that time, Satan tempts Jesus three times with food, display of divination, and dominion over the world. Jesus does not succumb to these temptations, and he rebukes Satan with scripture, ultimately defeating him. As I read through Ernest … Read More Miss Jane Pittman and the Temptation of Christ

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+ a different drummer, african american literature, american literature, children of strangers, frank yerby, neh summer institute, southern literature, Uncategorized

Choosing Which Texts to Teach or Not to Teach

by Unknown's avatar

Talking about Lyle Saxon’s Children of Strangers (1937) recently during the NEH Summer Institute, two questions arose: Why should we even read this novel? Should we even consider teaching it? Both of these questions are very important to consider when thinking about whether or not one should “expose” students to certain texts. In this post, I do not want to justify whether or not … Read More Choosing Which Texts to Teach or Not to Teach

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