Educator, writer, critic, intellectual, film-maker-Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has been widely praised as being one of America's most prominent and prolific scholars. In what will be an essential volume, The Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Reader collects three decades of writings from his many fields of interest and expertise. From his earliest work of literary-historical excavation in 1982, through his current writings on the history and science of African American genealogy, the essays collected here follow his path as historian, theorist, canon-builder, and cultural critic, revealing a thinker of uncommon breadth whose work is uniformly guided by the drive to uncover and restore a history that has for too long been buried and denied. An invaluable reference, The Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Reader will be a singular reflection of one of our most gifted minds.

As the author of The Women of Brewster Place, Linden Hills, Mama Day, and Bailey's Cafe, Gloria Naylor is widely respected as one of the most important contemporary African American women writers. This volume provides comprehensive coverage of the critical response to her works. The book is divided into sections devoted to each of Naylor's novels. Within each section, seminal articles and book chapters comment on her writing. Special attention is given to African American and feminist perspectives on her canon. In addition, many of the essays discuss the relationship of Naylor's novels to the works of classical authors such as Chaucer, Dante, and Shakespeare, and to significant modern writers; thus, the volume charts her sources and influence. While some of the essays have appeared previously and are among the most important responses to her writings, the book also includes several original pieces. An exclusive interview with Naylor, an insightful introduction, and a substantial bibliography are special features of this reference work. A balance of new and previously published material provides a thoughtful overview of the reception of her works. A thorough introductory essay discusses Naylor's place in American literature and the themes she treats throughout her novels. A chronology summarizes the principal events in her life and career, and a substantial bibliography lists works for further reading. A special feature is an exclusive interview with Naylor, in which she discusses such topics as the role of the politics of gender in her writings, her treatment of women, the relationship between art and morality, her views on race relations, her thoughts on the future of literature and on her most recent projects, and the manner in which she works and writes.

As the British empire expanded throughout the world, the English language played an important role in power relations between Britain and its colonies. English was used as a colonizing agent to suppress the indigenous cultures of various peoples and to make them subject to British rule. With the end of World War II, many countries became gradually decolonized, and their indigenous cultures experienced a renaissance. Colonial mores and power systems clashed and combined with indigenous traditions to create postcolonial texts. This volume treats postcoloniality as a process of cultural and linguistic interplay, in which British culture initially suppressed indigenous cultures and later combined with them after the decline of the British empire. The first section of this book provides an introductory overview of English postcoloniality. This section is followed by chapters discussing postcoloniality and literature from an historical perspective in particular countries around the world. The third section gives special attention to the literature and culture of indigenous peoples. A selected bibliography concludes the work.

This reader presents classic and contemporary essays. Organized thematically, it includes prose works spanning various ages, cultures and subjects. This updated edition includes 130 complete essays, two new chapters on gender and on the environment, and an introductory chapter on the reading and writing process. It also contains more work by women and writers from multicultural heritages.

The fourth edition of this reader's guide remains true to the ideals of previous editions, providing a concise guide to contemporary literary theories. The book covers a vast range of differing forms of English literature.

Countering dire pronouncements of the irrelevance of African American institutions, Teresa L. Fry Brown celebrates the way African American women continue, often invisibly, the task of passing on moral wisdom in African-American families, churches, and communities. The book begins with the author's analysis of intergenerational transmission of spiritual values as depicted in selected African American women's literature written since 1960 (gospel music, poems, novels, short stories, and autobiography). An interpretive framework is grounded in three ethical presuppositions based on traditional African American spiritual values, African American Theology and Ethics, Womanist Christology and Ethics, and values culled from the author's own experience and religious beliefs.

This classic thematic reader contains over a hundred reading selections, an intriguing collection of photographs and art, comprehensive treatment of critical reading and writing, analyses of professional writing, and expanded coverage of argument.

This multicultural, thematic reader takes on thought-provoking, global issues. The New World Reader presents first-year writing students with 66 timely essays by established writers on the most significant issues of the post-September 11th world. Working with recently published selections from well-known writers, students will have the opportunity to consider such strategic questions as the changing face of America, the challenges and consequences of globalization, the just response to terror, the international digital revolution, and the fate of the global environment. Challenged by notable contemporary thinkers and writers, students will be encouraged--individually and as members of a community--to come to grips with a world that is now subject to complex transformations.

A collection of essays that offers a different perspective on classic novels from the American literary canon. Suitable for students, scholars and the interested reader, it explores familiar novels through unfamiliar lenses and, in so doing, sheds light on surprising and previously overlooked aspects of each text.