What are the themes of African American literature?
Characteristics. African American literature tends to focus on themes of particular interest to Black people, for example, the role of African Americans within the larger American society and issues such as African American culture, racism, religion, slavery, freedom, and equality.
What is the purpose of African American literature?
This presence has always been a test case of the nation’s claims to freedom, democracy, equality, the inclusiveness of all.” African American literature explores the issues of freedom and equality long denied to Blacks in the United States, along with further themes such as African-American culture, racism, religion.
What are the characteristics of African American literature?
Characteristics of African American Literature
- Concern with identity.
- Concern with position in the dominant society.
- Use of the colorful, creative language of the African-American culture.
- Use of religious imagery, songs, settings and the dominance of the black church in the Southern black community.
Who is the father of African American literature?
A British citizen who had experienced enslavement in the Americas, Equiano has been traditionally regarded, along with Wheatley, as the founder of African literature in English by virtue of his having pioneered the slave narrative, a firsthand literary testimony against slavery which, by the early 19th century, earned …
What are the main genres of African-American literature?
Traditionally, American black fiction has been divided into four distinct categories: Colonial Literature (1740s – early 1900s), Harlem Renaissance (1917 – 1940), Post-Harlem Renaissance (1940 – 1980), and Contemporary Fiction (1980 – present).
How did slavery affect American literature?
The issue of slavery continued to incite the feelings of creative writers long after the Civil War ended and, to many, the best literary pieces were published after the political upheaval had calmed down and the social crises resolved.
What are the main genres of African American literature?
Who are some influential writers in African American literature?
10 Influential Black Authors You Should Read
- Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)
- Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
- Richard Wright (1908-1960)
- Ralph Ellison (1914-1994)
- Alex Haley (1921-1992)
- James Baldwin (1924-1987)
- Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
- Toni Morrison (1931-Date)
What do you know about African literature?
African literature, the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages. Works written in European languages date primarily from the 20th century onward.
What does literature mean to Africa?
African literature is literature from Africa, either oral (“orature”) or written in African and Afro-Asiatic languages. Rather than write or sing for beauty in itself, African writers, taking their cue from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and information to society.