Nikki Giovanni / Virginia C. Fowler Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fowler, Virginia C., 1948-

Contributor:

Joanna Banks Collection of African American Books (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Twayne's United States authors series ; TUSAS 613.

Twayne's United States authors series ; TUSAS 613

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Giovanni, Nikki--Criticism and interpretation.

Giovanni, Nikki.

African Americans in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Penn Provenance:

Banks, Joanna (donor) (Banks Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xvi, 192 pages : portrait ; 23 cm.

Distribution:

Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada.

Manufacture:

New York : Maxwell Macmillan International.

Place of Publication:

New York : Twayne Publishers, 1992.

Summary:

Nikki Giovanni began to write poetry in the 1960s when she was associated with the radical Black Arts Movement. She has since won a large popular following of a kind rarely achieved by poets in American society. Many ordinary people read, memorize, and recite her work, and her public readings are invariably well attended. Indeed, Giovanni's popular success has perhaps caused academic critics to underestimate the depth and breadth of her work. A strong-minded and independent woman, Giovanni has always resisted pigeon-holing, whether by literary critics or political ideologues. In this study, Virginia C. Fowler provides a ground-breaking survey and interpretation of Giovanni's work, thus filling a significant gap in contemporary literary studies. Fowler's close readings of Giovanni's work elucidate the orality of her poetry and the often subtle ways in which the poet has been influenced by spirituals, the blues, and jazz. In addition, the social, political, and biographical contexts that helped to shape Giovanni's poetry are sensitively delineated, as are the gender issues and personal concerns that became especially important in her verse of the 1970s. Giovanni's formal experimentation also receives its first extended treatment here. In the end, Giovanni is shown to be a poet of universal appeal, whose work reaches past barriers of race, class, and gender to touch the common humanity of her many readers while remaining deeply rooted in the rich tradition of African-American literature. This study will be valuable to all students of contemporary literature and especially to those interested in the contribution of women of color to our cultural life. An especially notable feature of thisvolume is a candid interview with Giovanni, in which the poet discusses her life, work, and contemporaries.

Contents:

An Introduction to the Life of Nikki Giovanni

The Early Volumes

Defying Categories: My House and The Women and the Men

Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day

Those Who Ride the Night Winds

The Connecting Voice of Poetry

Appendix: A Conversation with Nikki Giovanni.

Notes:

"Jacket design by Mark Schnapper. Jacket photo by Bob Veltri."

Includes bibliographical references (page 169-183) and index.

Local Notes:

Kislak Center Banks Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries in 2018 by Joanna Banks.

Banks Collection copy: dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

0805739831

OCLC:

25873599