Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors since 1950 from Gale Virtal Reference Library

This second edition, Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors, focuses on writers and works published since 1950. Like the previous volumes, the majority of the authors surveyed are African American, but representative African and Caribbean authors are also included. Given the proliferation of literature published by African Americans especially since the 1960s, and the even more vast volume of criticism it has generated, this compilation is necessarily selective. Writers whose works have found their way into the dynamic and evolving canon of African American literature and have been subjected to extensive critiques that did not appear in the previous series have been selected for inclusion. So have writers whose works have been published in major anthologies and encyclopedias of African American literature. In affording easy access to criticism of these writers' works, Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors provides students, teachers, writers and other readers of the literature with resources for making their own critical assessments of the writers and their work. Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors also provides its users with access to the at times heated discourses around the nature and character of African American literature; what distinguishes it aesthetically, intellectually and politically from other literatures; and what has been its relationship to and impact on American literature.

Prior to the 1960s, most mainstream American literary organizations and literary magazines did not admit African American writers, critique their works or publish African American writers or critics. African American newspapers and magazines dating back to the 19^th century often featured reviews and critiques of African American literature. During the 1920s, Crisis and Opportunity, the official magazines of the NAACP and the National Urban League, provided national forums for African American Literary criticism as did on occasion the Journal of Negro History and the Journal of Negro Education.

Denied full access to the Modern Language Association and other professional American literary organizations until the 1970s, African American writers and critics formed the College Language Association (CLA) in 1939. The CLA at its annual conference provided a forum where specialists in African American literature could present their assessments of African American writers and their works as well as overall evaluations of the evolving field of African American literature. The CLA Journal became a principal forum for publishing this work. It was joined by Johnson Publication's Negro Digest (and its successor Black World) in 1941. Negro Digest/Black World catered to a more general audience and played a major role in reporting African American literary developments and publishing African American literature and criticism. By the 1960s Negro Digest/Black World were joined by the Black Literature Forum, the Journal of Black Poetry, Callaloo, The Black Theater Review and a host of other African American Literary publications that focused on African American literature, literary history and criticism.

During the 1940s and 1950s a few African American writers—notably novelists Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, and Tony Award-winning playwright Lorraine Hansberry—came to the critical attention of the American literary establishment. Not until the emergence of African American studies programs and departments on American college and university campuses during the late 1960s and 1970s, however, did African American writers and their works as well as African American literature as a field enter the mainstream academy and literary profession. Previously published out of print works by African American writers were reprinted and distributed by publishing houses interested in cashing in on the Black Studies bonanza. Writers whose works had been turned down again and again by mainstream publishers suddenly found themselves courted by them. New black publishing houses such as Broadside, Third World Press, and Amistad Press published the works of writers from the black arts movement. And mainstream publishers, realizing that blacks do read and buy books, started new black imprints to publish black works.

Beginning in the 1970s, the pages of mainstream literary publications began to open to black writers and black critics. The MLA and other previously all-white literary organizations both opened membership to blacks and included panels on black literature in their annual programs. Black writers and critics even became officers in these organizations, including president. During the 1970s, black writers and their works began to find a place in college, university and grade school classrooms, in black bookstores and with mainstream booksellers. Gradually, African American literary critics—black, white and otherwise—found their reviews and critiques in print—in great abundance.

This abundant and diverse body of criticism of the works of African American, Caribbean and African writers has been scattered in the thousands of publishing outlets used by critics in this expansive period of literary production. Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors brings together a selection of this work and makes it available in an easily accessible format.

Information about authors and their works is presented through eight key access points:

• The Author Heading cites the name under which the author most commonly wrote, followed by birth and death dates. Uncertain birth or death dates are indicated by question marks. Name variations, including full birth names when available, are given in parentheses on the first line of the Biographical and Critical Introduction.
• The Biographical and Critical Introduction contains background information about the life and works of the author. Emphasis is given to four main areas: 1) biographical details that help reveal the life, character, and personality of the author; 2) overviews of the major literary interests of the author—for example, novel writing, autobiography, social reform, documentary, etc.; 3) descriptions and summaries of the author's best-known works; and 4) critical commentary about the author's achievement, stature, and importance.
• Many BLC: Classic and Emerging Authors entries include an Author Portrait.
• The List of Principal Works is chronological by date of first book publication and identifies the genre of each work. For non-English language authors whose works have been translated into English, the title and date of the first English-language edition are given in brackets following the foreign language listing. Unless otherwise indicated, dramas are dated by first performance rather than first publication.
• Criticism is arranged chronologically in each author entry to provide a useful perspective on changes in critical evaluation over the years. Entries include book reviews, studies of individual works, and comparative examinations. To ensure timeliness, current views are most often presented. For the purpose of easy identification, the critic's name and the date of the critical work are given at the beginning of each piece of criticism. Unsigned criticism is preceded by the title of the source in which it appeared. Within the criticism, titles of works by the author are printed in boldface type. Publication information (such as publisher names and book prices) has been deleted at the editor's discretion to provide smoother reading of the text.
• Critical essays are prefaced by Explanatory Notes as an additional aid to readers of BLC: Classic and Emerging Authors. These notes may provide several types of valuable information, including: 1) the perceived importance of the critical work; 2) the commentator's approach to the author's work; 3) the apparent purpose of the criticism; or 4) changes in critical trends regarding the author.
• A complete Bibliographical Citation of the original essay or book precedes each piece of criticism.
• An annotated Further Reading List appears at the end of most entries and suggests resources for additional study. In addition, boxed text directs readers to other Gale series containing information about the author.

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