Go There To Know There

It is not necessarily vital, but it is helpful, to understand the concept of Post-colonialism  to appreciate more fully the literature of Edwidge Danticat. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1969, Edwidge was raised by her grandmother until her parents found work in the U.S. From the age of four she was raised in a Haitian-populated section of Brooklyn, New York. Among her many publications, she has produced a collection of short stories entitled Krik? Krak! , and the novels Breath, Eyes, Memory , The Farming of the Bones , and The Dew Breaker . She has also published numerous essays and literature for young adults ( 2 ).  Post-Colonialism is a term that reaches across several disciplines, from anthropology, to history, to literary theory. Throughout, post-colonialist theorists concern themselves with the condition and aftermath of postcolonialism--and imperialism: a period in history in which powerful nations sought to subdue, enslave, and exploit the aboriginal people of ...

English 2650 Sections 150 and 201 Spring 2014 African American Literature Essay I So far this semester, we have read and discussed some of the key literary and creative productions of African Americans in the New World. We have encountered the trickster figure and the ‘signifying’ functions of the African American folktales and songs; the spiritual and gospel forms that provided solace and masking functions for the slave and his descendants. We have looked at examples of early African American biography’s antecedents in the Slave Narrative, beginning with Olaudah Equiano. These texts convey to us many of the prevailing themes and preoccupations that attended the African American struggle for freedom, recognition, and civil rights in the years leading up to the turn of the twentieth century. For this first formal essay, you are to choose at least one text that we have covered so far, and analyze that text in accordance with one (or two) of the themes we have covered. Your e...

On a random search through YouTube, I discovered this very interesting piece that complements our present section quite well: a dramatic reenactment of slave memories that were recorded and transcribed. You may recognize the familiar voices and faces of some well-known and well-loved African American actors such as Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Basset, Robert Guillaume, Roscoe Lee Brown, and a popular talk show host, entrepreneur, philanthropist and owner of cocker spaniels...

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (July 18, 1918-December 5, 2013)

"Born April 20, 1940 in Woodside, St. Mary, Jamaica, Erna Brodber grew up the daughter of a family acitve in the community affairs of their small town. She immersed herself in academia perhaps more than most other Caribbean authors, gaining a B.A. from the University College of the West Indies (now simply University of the West Indies) and ultimately attaining an M.Sc and Ph.D. She pursued many other professions before focusing on writing, including the posts of civil servant, teacher, sociology lecturer, and fellow/staff member of the Institute for Social and Economic Research in Mona, Jamaica. While at the ISER Brodber worked to collect the oral histories of elders in rural Jamaica, a project that would later inspire her novel Louisiana .  "While studying as a young woman in the United States, Brodber encountered two powerful forces she had not previously been exposed to: the Black Power and Women's Liberation movements. Coupled with her ...

"They were trying to blow me into heaven, but God wanted me on Earth." (*usatoday.com/news) Fred Shuttlesworth, the intrepid Civil Rights activist fought alongside the Reverends Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama. Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, he was well-known for his firebrand style of preaching, and for his devotion to human rights. After a long and eventful life, Shuttleworth passed away from a stroke Wednesday, October 5th. He was 89 years old. During the Civil Rights Struggle, Shuttlesworth gained renown for his undaunted courage and staunch commitment to the Movement. He survived two attempted bombings--one of which destroyed the parsonage alongside the church where he preached. On another occasion in Birmingham, he and his wife were mauled by members of the Ku Klux Klan, where he was viciously beaten with brass knuckles, baseball bats and bicycle chains when the couple attempted to enroll their da...