Author: Molefi Kete Asante
Publisher: Academic
ISBN: 9781942774068
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Molefi Kete Asante, one of the major Afrocentric thinkers, argues in this book that the African narrative based on African cultural values could underpin a new academic paradigm, which is brutally necessary. The problem is the degree to which Africans have become enamored through Greek, English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese with Westernity to the detriment of African ideas and ideals. Only in the re-centering of the African World in its own narrative subjectivity can true freedom of thought, innovation, and liberation exist as a way to enhance human knowledge. The Pan European Academy with all of its structural capital amassed over the centuries and enshrined in the educational systems of Africans has continued to dominate the theoretical base of African inquiries. The Precarious Center, or When will the African Narrative Hold, is a response to the dangers of a rampant racist ideology. It advances an African value quest in the discourse of humanity.
The Precarious Center, Or When Will the African Narrative Hold?
Author: Molefi Kete Asante
Publisher: Academic
ISBN: 9781942774068
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Molefi Kete Asante, one of the major Afrocentric thinkers, argues in this book that the African narrative based on African cultural values could underpin a new academic paradigm, which is brutally necessary. The problem is the degree to which Africans have become enamored through Greek, English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese with Westernity to the detriment of African ideas and ideals. Only in the re-centering of the African World in its own narrative subjectivity can true freedom of thought, innovation, and liberation exist as a way to enhance human knowledge. The Pan European Academy with all of its structural capital amassed over the centuries and enshrined in the educational systems of Africans has continued to dominate the theoretical base of African inquiries. The Precarious Center, or When will the African Narrative Hold, is a response to the dangers of a rampant racist ideology. It advances an African value quest in the discourse of humanity.
Publisher: Academic
ISBN: 9781942774068
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Molefi Kete Asante, one of the major Afrocentric thinkers, argues in this book that the African narrative based on African cultural values could underpin a new academic paradigm, which is brutally necessary. The problem is the degree to which Africans have become enamored through Greek, English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese with Westernity to the detriment of African ideas and ideals. Only in the re-centering of the African World in its own narrative subjectivity can true freedom of thought, innovation, and liberation exist as a way to enhance human knowledge. The Pan European Academy with all of its structural capital amassed over the centuries and enshrined in the educational systems of Africans has continued to dominate the theoretical base of African inquiries. The Precarious Center, or When will the African Narrative Hold, is a response to the dangers of a rampant racist ideology. It advances an African value quest in the discourse of humanity.
Only for the Brave at Heart
Author: Leon E. Pettiway
Publisher: Meishin
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
Only when we transform our minds can we break the chains of our mental enslavement and find true liberation from our misperceptions about race, crime, and justice. Social commentators and scholars have presented numerous theories on these topics. But while all lament the horrors associated with discrimination and racism, few so far have proposed a viable way to escape these sufferings. By taking a critical look at the writings of novelists, social commentators, and scholars in the fields of sociology, criminology, criminal justice, black studies, philosophy, and law, Professor Leon E. Pettiway presents a series of essays that provide a path that liberates us from these sufferings. In doing so, he provides a unique perspective that reframes the social realities of racial membership and institutional racism in the US and how they impact our perceptions of crime and justice. Buddhism and race are essential elements of these discussions, but Pettiway’s commentary is also informed by an Afrocentric perspective. In these ways, Pettiway examines our thoughts concerning race, the causes of crime, and the administration of justice. He uses these frameworks to demonstrate how our current modes of thinking reinforce and perpetuate white supremacy, influence our scholarly endeavors, and frame today’s public policies and social agendas. In Only for the Brave at Heart: Essays Rethinking Race, Crime, and Justice, readers will: (1) learn new ways of thinking that can liberate our world from injustice (2) assess the ways we create the realities of race, crime, and justice (3) explore how love and compassion lead to meaningful actions that can reduce human suffering Pettiway has spent his career as an academic and Buddhist monk reflecting on and writing about the African-American experience. Only for the Brave at Heart attempts to create an intellectual movement that reimagines how we think about the perceived differences that fracture our society and disenfranchise so many. In the end, Only for the Brave at Heart is a critique and commentary on social justice. This powerful collection of essays about discrimination and racism will prove to be one of the most important books about race in America today.
Publisher: Meishin
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
Only when we transform our minds can we break the chains of our mental enslavement and find true liberation from our misperceptions about race, crime, and justice. Social commentators and scholars have presented numerous theories on these topics. But while all lament the horrors associated with discrimination and racism, few so far have proposed a viable way to escape these sufferings. By taking a critical look at the writings of novelists, social commentators, and scholars in the fields of sociology, criminology, criminal justice, black studies, philosophy, and law, Professor Leon E. Pettiway presents a series of essays that provide a path that liberates us from these sufferings. In doing so, he provides a unique perspective that reframes the social realities of racial membership and institutional racism in the US and how they impact our perceptions of crime and justice. Buddhism and race are essential elements of these discussions, but Pettiway’s commentary is also informed by an Afrocentric perspective. In these ways, Pettiway examines our thoughts concerning race, the causes of crime, and the administration of justice. He uses these frameworks to demonstrate how our current modes of thinking reinforce and perpetuate white supremacy, influence our scholarly endeavors, and frame today’s public policies and social agendas. In Only for the Brave at Heart: Essays Rethinking Race, Crime, and Justice, readers will: (1) learn new ways of thinking that can liberate our world from injustice (2) assess the ways we create the realities of race, crime, and justice (3) explore how love and compassion lead to meaningful actions that can reduce human suffering Pettiway has spent his career as an academic and Buddhist monk reflecting on and writing about the African-American experience. Only for the Brave at Heart attempts to create an intellectual movement that reimagines how we think about the perceived differences that fracture our society and disenfranchise so many. In the end, Only for the Brave at Heart is a critique and commentary on social justice. This powerful collection of essays about discrimination and racism will prove to be one of the most important books about race in America today.
Black Lives and Digi-Culturalism
Author: Kehbuma Langmia
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793639744
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 205
Book Description
Black Lives and Digi-Culturalism: An Afrocentric Perspective uses several lenses to examine the role of African Americans and Africans in the production and consumption of information in digital spaces. This book explores topics such as Black confluence of digital and in-person spaces, cyberculture and Black identity, cyberfeminists and Black gendered voices, digi-culture and racism, capitalism and digital colonization, digital activism and politics, minorities and artificial intelligence, among other topics. Scholars of African and Black Diaspora studies, digital media culture, and communication will find this book particularly interesting.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793639744
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 205
Book Description
Black Lives and Digi-Culturalism: An Afrocentric Perspective uses several lenses to examine the role of African Americans and Africans in the production and consumption of information in digital spaces. This book explores topics such as Black confluence of digital and in-person spaces, cyberculture and Black identity, cyberfeminists and Black gendered voices, digi-culture and racism, capitalism and digital colonization, digital activism and politics, minorities and artificial intelligence, among other topics. Scholars of African and Black Diaspora studies, digital media culture, and communication will find this book particularly interesting.
The Handbook of Global Interventions in Communication Theory
Author: Yoshitaka Miike
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000536254
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 720
Book Description
Moving beyond the U.S.-Eurocentric paradigm of communication theory, this handbook broadens the intellectual horizons of the discipline by highlighting underrepresented, especially non-Western, theorists and theories, and identifies key issues and challenges for future scholarship. Showcasing diverse perspectives, the handbook facilitates active engagement in different cultural traditions and theoretical orientations that are global in scope but local in effect. It begins by exploring past efforts to diversify the field, continuing on to examine theoretical concepts, models, and principles rooted in local cumulative wisdom. It does not limit itself to the mass-interpersonal communication divide, but rather seeks to frame theory as global and inclusive in scope. The book is intended for communication researchers and advanced students, with relevance to scholars with an interest in theory within information science, library science, social and cross-cultural psychology, multicultural education, social justice and social ethics, international relations, development studies, and political science.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000536254
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 720
Book Description
Moving beyond the U.S.-Eurocentric paradigm of communication theory, this handbook broadens the intellectual horizons of the discipline by highlighting underrepresented, especially non-Western, theorists and theories, and identifies key issues and challenges for future scholarship. Showcasing diverse perspectives, the handbook facilitates active engagement in different cultural traditions and theoretical orientations that are global in scope but local in effect. It begins by exploring past efforts to diversify the field, continuing on to examine theoretical concepts, models, and principles rooted in local cumulative wisdom. It does not limit itself to the mass-interpersonal communication divide, but rather seeks to frame theory as global and inclusive in scope. The book is intended for communication researchers and advanced students, with relevance to scholars with an interest in theory within information science, library science, social and cross-cultural psychology, multicultural education, social justice and social ethics, international relations, development studies, and political science.
An Intellectual Biography of Africa
Author: Francis Kwarteng
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1669836541
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 678
Book Description
Africa is the birthplace of humanity and civilization. And yet people generally don’t want to accept the scientific impression of Africa as the birthplace of human civilization. The skeptics include Africans themselves, a direct result of the colonial educational systems still in place across Africa, and even those Africans who acquire Western education, particularly in the humanities, have been trapped in the symptomatology of epistemic peonage. These colonial educational systems have overstayed their welcome and should be dismantled. This is where African agency comes in. Agential autonomy deserves an authoritative voice in shaping the curricular direction of Africa. Agential autonomy implicitly sanctions an Afrocentric approach to curriculum development, pedagogy, historiography, literary theory, indigenous language development, and knowledge construction. Science, technology, engineering, mathematics?information and communications technology (STEM-ICT) and research and development (R&D) both exercise foundational leverage in the scientific and cultural discourse of the kind of African Renaissance Cheikh Anta Diop envisaged. “Mr. Francis Kwarteng has written a book that looks at some of the major distortions of African history and Africa’s major contributions to human civilization. In this context, Mr. Kwarteng joins a long list of thinkers who roundly reject the foundational Eurocentric epistemology of Africa in favor of an Afrocentric paradigm of Africa’s material, spiritual, scientific, and epistemic assertion. Mr. Kwarteng places S.T.E.M. and a revision of the humanities at the center of the African Renaissance and critiques Eurocentric fantasies about Africa and its Diaspora following the critical examples of Cheikh Anta Diop, Ama Mazama, Molefi Kete Asante, Abdul Karim Bangura, Theophile Obenga, Maulana Karenga, Mubabingo Bilolo, Kwame Nkrumah, Ivan Van Sertima, W.E.B. Du Bois, and several others. Readers of this book will be challenged to look at Africa through a critical lens.” Ama Mazama, editor/author of Africa in the 21st Century: Toward a New Future “There are countless books about the evolution of European intellectual thought but scarcely any that captures the pioneering contributions of Africans since the beginning of recorded knowledge in Kmet, a.k.a. Ancient Egypt. Well, that long drought has ended with the publication of Kwarteng's An Intellectual Biography of Africa: A Philosophical Anatomy of Advancing Africa the Diopian Way. Prepare to be educated.” Milton Allimadi, author of Manufacturing Hate: How Africa Was Demonized in the Media
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1669836541
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 678
Book Description
Africa is the birthplace of humanity and civilization. And yet people generally don’t want to accept the scientific impression of Africa as the birthplace of human civilization. The skeptics include Africans themselves, a direct result of the colonial educational systems still in place across Africa, and even those Africans who acquire Western education, particularly in the humanities, have been trapped in the symptomatology of epistemic peonage. These colonial educational systems have overstayed their welcome and should be dismantled. This is where African agency comes in. Agential autonomy deserves an authoritative voice in shaping the curricular direction of Africa. Agential autonomy implicitly sanctions an Afrocentric approach to curriculum development, pedagogy, historiography, literary theory, indigenous language development, and knowledge construction. Science, technology, engineering, mathematics?information and communications technology (STEM-ICT) and research and development (R&D) both exercise foundational leverage in the scientific and cultural discourse of the kind of African Renaissance Cheikh Anta Diop envisaged. “Mr. Francis Kwarteng has written a book that looks at some of the major distortions of African history and Africa’s major contributions to human civilization. In this context, Mr. Kwarteng joins a long list of thinkers who roundly reject the foundational Eurocentric epistemology of Africa in favor of an Afrocentric paradigm of Africa’s material, spiritual, scientific, and epistemic assertion. Mr. Kwarteng places S.T.E.M. and a revision of the humanities at the center of the African Renaissance and critiques Eurocentric fantasies about Africa and its Diaspora following the critical examples of Cheikh Anta Diop, Ama Mazama, Molefi Kete Asante, Abdul Karim Bangura, Theophile Obenga, Maulana Karenga, Mubabingo Bilolo, Kwame Nkrumah, Ivan Van Sertima, W.E.B. Du Bois, and several others. Readers of this book will be challenged to look at Africa through a critical lens.” Ama Mazama, editor/author of Africa in the 21st Century: Toward a New Future “There are countless books about the evolution of European intellectual thought but scarcely any that captures the pioneering contributions of Africans since the beginning of recorded knowledge in Kmet, a.k.a. Ancient Egypt. Well, that long drought has ended with the publication of Kwarteng's An Intellectual Biography of Africa: A Philosophical Anatomy of Advancing Africa the Diopian Way. Prepare to be educated.” Milton Allimadi, author of Manufacturing Hate: How Africa Was Demonized in the Media
Precarious Balance
Author: Rosemary Townsend
Publisher:
ISBN: 1466994215
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
This novel traces a year in the life of Clare MacMillan, who is happily married and lives in Cape Town. Largely through the consciousness of Clare, the story is told of the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows that occur over the period of a year in the life of her family. This eventful year encompasses momentous family events, during which Clare needs to hold her nerve and maintain her balance. Her Christian faith is at the centre of her life, and sustains her, alongside the love of her husband and two sons. It is the permutations in the lives of these four family members that give the novel its drama and intensity. The narrative weaves easily through the different seasons of the year, keeping and engaging our interest all the way through. While the ending of the novel may not be conventional, it is ultimately life-affirming, and we are left with a positive feeling. We are moved by the love felt and shown between the characters, and by their courage and generosity of spirit, especially that of Clare as she consistently holds her family together. The young men Jerome and Matthew have their own narratives which are interwoven with those of their parents. The reader is drawn to all the characters with their dramas and melodramas. Ultimately faith triumphs over the events that challenge it, and hope helps overcome loss. It is a positive story of love and courage, faith and hope.
Publisher:
ISBN: 1466994215
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
This novel traces a year in the life of Clare MacMillan, who is happily married and lives in Cape Town. Largely through the consciousness of Clare, the story is told of the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows that occur over the period of a year in the life of her family. This eventful year encompasses momentous family events, during which Clare needs to hold her nerve and maintain her balance. Her Christian faith is at the centre of her life, and sustains her, alongside the love of her husband and two sons. It is the permutations in the lives of these four family members that give the novel its drama and intensity. The narrative weaves easily through the different seasons of the year, keeping and engaging our interest all the way through. While the ending of the novel may not be conventional, it is ultimately life-affirming, and we are left with a positive feeling. We are moved by the love felt and shown between the characters, and by their courage and generosity of spirit, especially that of Clare as she consistently holds her family together. The young men Jerome and Matthew have their own narratives which are interwoven with those of their parents. The reader is drawn to all the characters with their dramas and melodramas. Ultimately faith triumphs over the events that challenge it, and hope helps overcome loss. It is a positive story of love and courage, faith and hope.
African Film Cultures
Author: Añuli Agina
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527500578
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
The growing body of films in and around Africa, and the seemingly incongruent growth in African film scholarship, suggests the need for new perspectives, approaches and insights into film cultures in Africa. Although it is impossible to capture the entire diversity of existing African film cultures, this collection, which has resulted from African film conferences organized by the University of Westminster, United Kingdom, has recognized the significance and urgency of this task. The book offers a unique engagement with widened African film ‘cultures’ in the context of diverse peoples, histories, geographies, languages and changing film production cultures shaped by audiences and users at home and in the diaspora. The volume is a significant contribution to the processes of representing the self and other, as well as the emergence of alternative, non-official dialogues, circulation and consumption, including on social media. Students, researchers, film policy makers, film producers, distributors and anyone else with an interest in African screen media will find in the book useful and readable analyses of socio-political factors that affect and are shaped by African film.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527500578
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
The growing body of films in and around Africa, and the seemingly incongruent growth in African film scholarship, suggests the need for new perspectives, approaches and insights into film cultures in Africa. Although it is impossible to capture the entire diversity of existing African film cultures, this collection, which has resulted from African film conferences organized by the University of Westminster, United Kingdom, has recognized the significance and urgency of this task. The book offers a unique engagement with widened African film ‘cultures’ in the context of diverse peoples, histories, geographies, languages and changing film production cultures shaped by audiences and users at home and in the diaspora. The volume is a significant contribution to the processes of representing the self and other, as well as the emergence of alternative, non-official dialogues, circulation and consumption, including on social media. Students, researchers, film policy makers, film producers, distributors and anyone else with an interest in African screen media will find in the book useful and readable analyses of socio-political factors that affect and are shaped by African film.
Pre-Colonial Africa in Colonial African Narratives
Author: Donald R. Wehrs
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131707629X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
In his study of the origins of political reflection in twentieth-century African fiction, Donald Wehrs examines a neglected but important body of African texts written in colonial (English and French) and indigenous (Hausa and Yoruba) languages. He explores pioneering narrative representations of pre-colonial African history and society in seven texts: Casely Hayford's Ethiopia Unbound (1911), Alhaji Sir Abubaker Tafawa Balewa's Shaihu Umar (1934), Paul Hazoumé's Doguicimi (1938), D.O. Fagunwa's Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1938), Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952) and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954), and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958). Wehrs highlights the role of pre-colonial political economies and articulations of state power on colonial-era considerations of ethical and political issues, and is attentive to the gendered implications of texts and authorial choices. By positioning Things Fall Apart as the culmination of a tradition, rather than as its inaugural work, he also reconfigures how we think of African fiction. His book supplements recent work on the importance of indigenous contexts and discourses in situating colonial-era narratives and will inspire fresh methodological strategies for studying the continent from a multiplicity of perspectives.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131707629X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
In his study of the origins of political reflection in twentieth-century African fiction, Donald Wehrs examines a neglected but important body of African texts written in colonial (English and French) and indigenous (Hausa and Yoruba) languages. He explores pioneering narrative representations of pre-colonial African history and society in seven texts: Casely Hayford's Ethiopia Unbound (1911), Alhaji Sir Abubaker Tafawa Balewa's Shaihu Umar (1934), Paul Hazoumé's Doguicimi (1938), D.O. Fagunwa's Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1938), Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952) and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954), and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958). Wehrs highlights the role of pre-colonial political economies and articulations of state power on colonial-era considerations of ethical and political issues, and is attentive to the gendered implications of texts and authorial choices. By positioning Things Fall Apart as the culmination of a tradition, rather than as its inaugural work, he also reconfigures how we think of African fiction. His book supplements recent work on the importance of indigenous contexts and discourses in situating colonial-era narratives and will inspire fresh methodological strategies for studying the continent from a multiplicity of perspectives.
African Pyramids of Knowledge
Author: Molefi Kete Asante
Publisher: Academy
ISBN: 9780982532706
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
The Afrocentric method seeks to transform human reality by ushering in a human openness to cultural pluralism that cannot exist without the unlocking of our minds for acceptance of an expansion of consciousness. I seek to overthrow parochialism, provincialism, and narrow Wotanic visions of the world by demonstrating the usefulness of an Afrocentric approach, based on beginning with ancient Kemet, to questions of knowledge. Without a plausible ideology we can never march in the same direction; Afrocentricity is essential for the collective vision. I must alert you to the overpowering value of realizing an Africa truth that has been staring us in the face for thousands of years: the permanence of the pyramids.There is nothing profound in such a pronouncement, there have been similar pronouncements by various other writers, but what is different, I hope, is the identification of the principal cause of the failure in those other formulations. In the West there have been theories and critiques that are fraught with problems whether you call them by the names of existentialism, phenomenology, structuralism, post-colonialism, or deconstruction. What we have come to know is that the proponents of these views have hedged their bets in a European worldview that is moribund when it comes to looking at the outside world. They cannot truly grasp the significance of a revolutionary idea that would challenge the Eurocentric projection of its method as universal. However, the time has come for a total re-evaluation of both intellectual privilege and the assertion of European dominance in knowledge.
Publisher: Academy
ISBN: 9780982532706
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
The Afrocentric method seeks to transform human reality by ushering in a human openness to cultural pluralism that cannot exist without the unlocking of our minds for acceptance of an expansion of consciousness. I seek to overthrow parochialism, provincialism, and narrow Wotanic visions of the world by demonstrating the usefulness of an Afrocentric approach, based on beginning with ancient Kemet, to questions of knowledge. Without a plausible ideology we can never march in the same direction; Afrocentricity is essential for the collective vision. I must alert you to the overpowering value of realizing an Africa truth that has been staring us in the face for thousands of years: the permanence of the pyramids.There is nothing profound in such a pronouncement, there have been similar pronouncements by various other writers, but what is different, I hope, is the identification of the principal cause of the failure in those other formulations. In the West there have been theories and critiques that are fraught with problems whether you call them by the names of existentialism, phenomenology, structuralism, post-colonialism, or deconstruction. What we have come to know is that the proponents of these views have hedged their bets in a European worldview that is moribund when it comes to looking at the outside world. They cannot truly grasp the significance of a revolutionary idea that would challenge the Eurocentric projection of its method as universal. However, the time has come for a total re-evaluation of both intellectual privilege and the assertion of European dominance in knowledge.
Tending to the Past
Author: Karen Michele Chandler
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496845951
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
In many popular depictions of Black resistance to slavery, stereotypes around victimization and the heroic efforts of a small number of individuals abound. These ideas ignore the powers of ordinary families and obscure the systematic working of racism. Tending to the Past: Selfhood and Culture in Children’s Narratives about Slavery and Freedom examines Black-authored historical novels and films for children that counter this distortion and depict creative means by which ordinary African Americans survived slavery and racism in early America. Tending to the Past argues that this important, understudied historical writing—freedom narratives—calls on young readers to be active, critical thinkers about the past and its legacies within the present. The book examines how narratives by children’s book authors, such as Joyce Hansen, Julius Lester, Marilyn Nelson, and Patricia McKissack, and the filmmakers Charles Burnett and Zeinabu irene Davis, were influenced by Black cultural imperatives, such as the Black Arts Movement, to foster an engaged, culturally aware public. Through careful analysis of this rich body of work, Tending to the Past thus contributes to ongoing efforts to construct a history of Black children’s literature and film attuned to its range, specificity, and depths. Tending to the Past provides illuminating interpretations that will help scholars and educators see the significance of the freedom narratives’ reconstructions in a neoliberal era, a time of shrinking opportunities for many African Americans. It offers models for understanding the powers and continuing relevance of the Black child’s creative agency and the Black cultural practices that have fostered it.
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496845951
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
In many popular depictions of Black resistance to slavery, stereotypes around victimization and the heroic efforts of a small number of individuals abound. These ideas ignore the powers of ordinary families and obscure the systematic working of racism. Tending to the Past: Selfhood and Culture in Children’s Narratives about Slavery and Freedom examines Black-authored historical novels and films for children that counter this distortion and depict creative means by which ordinary African Americans survived slavery and racism in early America. Tending to the Past argues that this important, understudied historical writing—freedom narratives—calls on young readers to be active, critical thinkers about the past and its legacies within the present. The book examines how narratives by children’s book authors, such as Joyce Hansen, Julius Lester, Marilyn Nelson, and Patricia McKissack, and the filmmakers Charles Burnett and Zeinabu irene Davis, were influenced by Black cultural imperatives, such as the Black Arts Movement, to foster an engaged, culturally aware public. Through careful analysis of this rich body of work, Tending to the Past thus contributes to ongoing efforts to construct a history of Black children’s literature and film attuned to its range, specificity, and depths. Tending to the Past provides illuminating interpretations that will help scholars and educators see the significance of the freedom narratives’ reconstructions in a neoliberal era, a time of shrinking opportunities for many African Americans. It offers models for understanding the powers and continuing relevance of the Black child’s creative agency and the Black cultural practices that have fostered it.