Workings of the Spirit
The Poetics of Afro-American Women’s Writing
9780226035239
9780226035222
Workings of the Spirit
The Poetics of Afro-American Women’s Writing
Turning on inspired interpretations of Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Ntozake Shange, Workings of the Spirit weighs current critical approaches to black women’s writing against Baker’s own explanation of the founding, theoretical state of Afro-American intellectual history.
"Brilliant, and tenderly riveted to gratitude as an indispensable facet of analysis, Houston Baker arrives, yet again, bearing the loveliest flowers of his devotion and delight: thank God he’s here!"—June Jordan
"Brilliant, and tenderly riveted to gratitude as an indispensable facet of analysis, Houston Baker arrives, yet again, bearing the loveliest flowers of his devotion and delight: thank God he’s here!"—June Jordan
256 pages | 40 halftones, frontispiece | 6 x 9 | © 1990
Literature and Literary Criticism: American and Canadian Literature
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Daughter’s Departure: Theory, History, and Late-Nineteenth-Century Black Women’s Writing
1. Theoretical Returns
2. Workings of the Spirit: Conjure and the Space of Black Women’s Creativity
3. On Knowing Our Place
4. The Changing Instant
Conclusion
Toward the Iterability of ONE
Afterword
Notes
Illustration Sources
Index
The Daughter’s Departure: Theory, History, and Late-Nineteenth-Century Black Women’s Writing
1. Theoretical Returns
2. Workings of the Spirit: Conjure and the Space of Black Women’s Creativity
3. On Knowing Our Place
4. The Changing Instant
Conclusion
Toward the Iterability of ONE
Afterword
Notes
Illustration Sources
Index
Awards
Chicago Women in Publishing: Chicago Women in Publishing Annual Awards
Honorable Mention