African Writers Series

ring bells when African American poets are mentioned? The legends who have influenced the path in which our ancestors fought hard to obtain in past generations. Booker T. Washington, Rita Dove, Richard Wright, Zora Hurston and Langston Hughes were a few among various highly influential poets during the 1900s. One of the biggest accomplishments of blacks today is that literature has developed from these African American poets. These individuals have set a tone and path to allow writers of any ethnicity

Alice Walker and Maya Angelou are two contemporary African-American writers. Although almost a generation apart in age, both women display a remarkable similarity in their lives. Each has written about her experiences growing up in the rural South, Ms. Walker through her essays and Ms. Angelou in her autobiographies. Though they share similar backgrounds, each has a unique style that gives the readers, the gift of their exquisite humanity, with all of its frailties and strengths, joys and sorrows

the writer the deeper problem is not to allow himself to be impaled on the dilemma proposed by the state, namely, either to ignore its obscenities or else to produce representations of them. The true challenge is: how not to play the game by the rules of the state, how to establish one’s own authority, how to imagine torture and death on one’s own terms. (Coetzee ed. Atwell, Doubling the Point 364)

Jamaica Kincaid's short story Girl and Ralph Ellison's King of the Bingo Game display prejudices, insecurities, and African Americans' struggle to find their own identity in the mid to late 1900s. In Girl, an unnamed daughter receives critical instructions and harsh advice from her mother about how to take care of a home, behave like a respectful woman, and have a proper, loving relationship. In the King of the Bingo Game, an unnamed middle-aged man plays a bingo game that will determine his well-being

this, the author is defending the African race by claiming that the punishment for the actions of their ancestors should not be burdened with them. We read that the sons of a black person’s master will sometimes want to help rise and benefit the individual. Du Bois claims, “National opinion has enabled this last class to maintain the Negro common schools, and to protect the Negro partially in property, life, and limb” (1166). This tells readers that the African race is beginning to receive their

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings       Alice Walker and Maya Angelou are two contemporary African-American writers.  Although almost a generation apart in age, both women display a remarkable similarity in their lives.  Each has written about her experiences growing up in the rural South, Ms. Walker through her essays and Ms. Angelou in her autobiographies.  Though they share similar backgrounds, each has a unique style which gives to us, the readers

poignant authors whose works have remained influential throughout time. Feminism, politics, and religion are three aspects evident in their personal lives an d literature. Wheatley was considered a feminist icon because she was the first published African American female poet. However, her writing did not deal with feminist issues, rather, they focussed on religious and political themes. Unlike Wheatley, Harper's femi nist views are incorporated into her work. She uses religion as a method to express

to work at it, but not as in individual but as a whole, a class. The only way for them to make a difference to change societies view of their class and become part of the rest of societies.      In 'Girl'; Kincaid lists a series of orders from a mother to a daughter in such a way that the characters' lives are illuminated and transformed by the mundane household details. The 'Girl'; is more of a gender type of a story, but there is also a lesson that needs to be realized

Angelou uses descriptive language to draw the readers in, she gives detail by detail of how the boxing match took place and all the emotions that were running through her. For the most part the writer is credible, she explains how the black community in her town came together to listen to the radio, but after some research it was found that Joe Louis and Primo Carnera only fought once and it was not a championship fight. Perhaps she was referring

Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, and James Baldwin have some of the most well-known African American writers. Although they lived during the same time and agreed that race was an enormous problem, they all had different approaches. For example: King believed in nonviolent protest and integration, Malcolm X wanted a separate society for blacks and violent protests, and Baldwin knew that white people were the key to solving inequality if they learned their history of oppression and wanted integration