by Keith Clark (2002)
"From Frederick Douglass to the present, the preoccupation of black writers with manhood and masculinity has been constant. Black Manhood in James Baldwin, Ernest J. Gaines, and August Wilson explores how in their own work three major African-American writers contest classic portrayals of black men in earlier literature, from slave narratives through the great novels of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.". "Keith Clark examines short stories, novels, and plays by Baldwin, Gaines, and Wilson, arguing that since the 1950s the three have interrupted and radically dismantled the constricting literary depictions of black men who equate selfhood with victimization, isolation, and patriarchy. Instead, they have reimagined black men whose identity is grounded in community, camaraderie, and intimacy."--BOOK JACKET.
Knut Hamsun
First published in Norway in 1890, Hunger probes into the depths of consciousness with frightening and gripping power. Like the works of Dostoyevsky, it marks an extraordinary break with Western literary and humanistic traditions. Also contained in: - Ernest Hemingway / Knut Hamsun / Hermann Hesse
David Prior
"Living like a Corinthian." In ancient Greece this phrase was an insult cast at vagrants, drunkards and sexual deviates. The city of Corinth was infamous as a center for intellectual pride and moral laxity. Any church planted there was bound to have problems. The Corinthian church was no exception. Snobbishness, factionalism, insensitivity to other believers, doctrinal looseness and overexuberance all flourished in the Corinthian church. When the apostle Paul heard about the difficulties, he was grieved because he had founded the church and felt closely tied to it. He therefore wrote an intense and pointed letter. In this fresh and gripping exposition of 1 Corinthians, David Prior plainly shows the relevance of Paul's letter for our times. His hope is that all churches may better live out the lordship of Christ in today's cosmopolitan world. - Back cover.
Elaine Showalter
"With sources as diverse as A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Scream 2, Inventing Herself is an expansive and timely exploration of women who possess a boundless determination to alter the world by boldly experiencing love, achievement, and fame on a grand scale. These women tried to work, travel, think, love, and even die in ways that were ahead of their time. In doing so, they forged an epic history that each generation of adventurous women has rediscovered.". "Focusing on paradigmatic figures ranging from Mary Wollstonecraft and Margaret Fuller to Germaine Greer and Susan Sontag, preeminent scholar Elaine Showalter uncovers common themes and patterns of these women's lives across the centuries and discovers the feminist intellectual tradition they embodied. The author illuminates the contributions of Eleanor Marx, Zora Neale Hurston, Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Mead, and many more."
Amy K. Levin
Traces the continuing influence of West African women's traditions and societies on late-20th-century literature by African-American women. The first half of the book focuses on how these influences permeate both theme and imagery in novels by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, and Gloria Naylor. The second half focuses on recent neo-slave narratives as works that sprang from the African experience rather than merely paralleling the original slave narratives. [publisher web site].