(Ebook) Writing African American Women: An Encyclopedia of Literature by and about Women of Color (vols. 1 & 2) by Elizabeth A. Beaulieu ISBN 9780313331961, 0313331960

(Ebook) Writing African American Women: An Encyclopedia of Literature by and about Women of Color (vols. 1 & 2) by Elizabeth A. Beaulieu ISBN 9780313331961, 0313331960

Women have had a complex experience in African American culture. The first work of its kind, this encyclopedia approaches African American literature from a Women's Studies perspective. While Yolanda Williams Page's Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers provides biographical entries on more than 150 literary figures, this book is much broader in scope. Included are several hundred alphabetically arranged entries on African American women writers, as well as on male writers who have treated women in their works. Entries on genres, periods, themes, characters, historical events, texts, places, and other topics are included as well. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and relates its subject to the overall experience of women in African American literature. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography.

African American culture is enormously diverse, and the experience of women in African American society is especially complex. Women were among the first African American writers, and works by black women writers are popular among students and general readers alike. At the same time, African American women have been oppressed, and texts by black male authors represent women in a variety of ways. The first of its kind, this encyclopedia approaches African American literature from a Women's Studies perspective, and thus significantly illuminates the African American cultural experience through literary works.

Included are several hundred alphabetically arranged entries, written by numerous expert contributors. In addition to covering male and female African American authors, the encyclopedia also discusses themes, major works and characters, genres, periods, historical events, places, and other topics.

Included are entries on such authors as:

; Maya Angelou

; James Baldwin

; Frederick Douglass

; Nikki Giovanni

; June Jordan

; Claude McKay

; Ishmael Reed

; Sojourner Truth

; Phillis Wheatley

; And many other