Research Catalog

Title

Liberating voices : oral tradition in African American literature / Gayl Jones.

Author

Jones, Gayl

Publication

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1991.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

viii, 228 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

"The powerful novelist here turns penetrating critic, giving us--in lively style--both trenchant literary analysis and fresh insight on the art of writing. "When African American writers began to trust the literary possibilities of their own verbal and musical creations," writes Gayl Jones, they began to transform the European and European American models, and to gain greater artistic sovereignty." The vitality of African American literature derives from its incorporation of traditional oral forms: folktales, riddles, idiom, jazz rhythms, spirituals, and blues. Jones traces the development of this literature as African American writers, celebrating their oral heritage, developed distinctive literary forms. The twentieth century saw a new confidence and deliberateness in African American work: the move from surface use of dialect to articulation of a genuine black voice; the move from blacks portrayed for a white audience to characterization relieved of the need to justify. Innovative writing--such as Charles Waddell Chesnutt's depiction of black folk culture, Langston Hughes's poetic use of blues, and Amiri Baraka's recreation of the short story as a jazz piece--redefined Western literary tradition. For Jones, literary technique is never far removed from its social and political implications. She documents how literary form is inherently and intensely national, and shows how the European monopoly on acceptable forms for literary art stifled American writers both black and white. Jones is especially eloquent in describing the dilemma of the African American writers: to write from their roots yet retain a universal voice; to merge the power and fluidity of oral tradition with the structure needed for written presentation. With this work Gayl Jones has added a new dimension to African American literary history."--Abe Books viewed Jan. 7, 2022.

Subject

• 1900-1999
• African Americans in literature
• American literature > 20th century > History and criticism
• American literature > History and criticism
• Black persons
• Folklore in literature
• Literature and folklore > United States
• Music and literature
• Oral tradition > United States
• United States

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-221) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

From dialect to blues and spirituals : Paul L. Dunbar and Langston Hughes -- Folk speech and character revelation : Sterling Brown's "Uncle Joe" -- Multiple-voiced blues : Sherley A. Williams's "Someone sweet angel chile" -- Jazz modalities : Michael S. Harper's "Uplift from a dark tower" -- Breaking out of the conventions of dialect : Paul L. Dunbar and Zora Neale Hurston -- Blues ballad : Jean Toomer's "Karintha" -- Slang, theme, and structure : Loyle Hairston's "The winds of change" -- Jazz/blues structure in Ann Petry's "Solo on the drums" -- Folktale, character, and resolution : Ralph Ellison's "Flying home" -- The freeing of traditional forms : jazz and Amiri Baraka's "The screamers" -- Dialect and narrative : Zora Neale Hurston's Their eyes were watching God -- Riddle : Ralph Ellison's Invisible man, or "Change the joke and slip the yoke" -- Blues and spirituals : dramatic and lyrical patterns in Alice Walker's The third life of Grange Copeland -- Freeing the voice : Ernest Gaines's The autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman -- Motives of folktale : Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon.

ISBN

0674530241 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^90045559^

OCLC

22347550

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library