Suggests that the assumption that the theme of anti-rationalism in Jones is an attack on reason as such and that such a theme rests on an exclusive commitment to the irrational needs to be tested. (Author/AM)

In this overview of the past decade of Black writing, the work of major Black novelists and poets is described and placed in historical perspective. The development of Black idioms and the Black imagination is discussed. (WI)

Discusses the relationship of the Black contemporary author, Alice Walker, to folklorist Zora Neale Hurston and presents a clarification of the relationship of gender and race in a revised theory of literary influence. Argues that Black women authors sometimes misread literary forbears in order to discover and express a positive matrilineage…

In his works, Richard Wright denounces murder while advocating collectivism as an essential ingredient for effecting social change. The short story collection "Uncle Tom's Children" and the novel "Native Son" are the focal points in this analysis of Wright's recurring themes. (SLD)

Four African-American and West Indian novels of childhood illustrate relationships and bonding between mothers and sons: (1) "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (James Baldwin); (2) "Not without Laughter" (Langston Hughes); (3) "Amongst Thistles and Thorns" (Austin Clarke); and (4) "In the Castle of My Skin"…

Discusses various critical interpretations of Zora Neale Hurston's personality and writing beginning in the Harlem Renaissance. Examines literary skirmishes and aesthetic debates between Hurston and Langston Hughes and Richard Wright beginning in the Harlem Renaissance period. Explores Black male and female writers' perspectives during this time.…

Toni Cade Bambara's novel "The Salt Eaters" is art colored by social responsibility as the author attempts to give her African-American audience a sense of their history and their identity so they can value and accept collective work and responsibility. The novel's strengths and thematic weaknesses are discussed. (SLD)

Part of a larger rhetorical biography, this essay examines several of the narratives of the southern writer and humorist, Irvin S. Cobb (1876-1944), to understand the unhappy "ordinary experience" of Southern racism and sexism. Following a biographical introduction, the first section discusses Cobb's narratives, while the second deals…