African American literature in transition. Volume 11, 1940-1950 / edited by Michael Hill

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hill, Michael D., 1971- editor.

Series:

African American literature in transition

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

African American aesthetics.

African American arts--20th century.

African American arts.

African Americans--Politics and government--20th century.

African Americans.

African Americans--Intellectual life--20th century.

African Americans in literature.

African Americans--Politics and government.

African Americans--Intellectual life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026

Summary:

"1940s African American literature sits between two of the best-known periods in Black writing. Adding more intricacy to its framing, this decade's literary output commences and ends with watershed creative accomplishments by canonical mainstays in the waiting like Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison. However, this book shows that mid-century Black literary productivity is not a matter of a handful of canonical figures and instead, it illuminates overt and implicit collaboration as a hallmark of the age. It identifies perforation, aesthetic plurality, multi-generic virtuosity, and writerly professionalism as signposts for understanding mid-twentieth century Black literary productivity. It engages prior assessments that cast African American literature in the 1940s based on stylistic clashes and technical stasis. It restores Black writing's role as feature of American social progress in the space between the Great Depression and the mature Civil Rights Movement"-- Cambridge Core

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed July 21, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: African American literature in transition

ISBN:

9781108648240

110864824X

OCLC:

1592132451

Publisher Number:

CIPO000382334

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license