Abstract
In the US for many years and in the UK mainly since the early 1980s we have been teaching African American women’s writing within American studies, women’s studies, and various literature courses. This has built on the gradual recuperation of historical texts such as Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), and the recognition and appreciation of nineteenth and twentieth century writers such as Zora Neale Hurston. Actually, African American women’s writing was probably opened up as an area for study by the critical success of more contemporary writers, including Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou. Their work includes a focus on recuperation and rewriting of history, semi-fictionalised autobiography, and new forms of expression derived from oral storytelling, music, song, and a Black folk aesthetic. Latterly, critical and culturally aware engagement in fiction, drama, and poetry has taken a more fantastic turn with the writing of, for example, Tananarive Due, Octavia Butler, Jewelle Gomez, and Nalo Hopkinson.
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© 2010 Gina Wisker
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Wisker, G. (2010). Introduction to Teaching African American Women’s Writing. In: Wisker, G. (eds) Teaching African American Women’s Writing. Teaching the New English. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137086471_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137086471_1
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