Gable, Craig, ed. Ebony rising; short fiction of the greater Harlem Renaissance era.GABLE, Craig, ed. Ebony ebony, common name for members of the Ebenaceae, a family of trees and shrubs widely distributed in warmer climates and in the tropics. The principal genus, Diospyros, includes both ebony and persimmon trees. rising; short fiction of the greater Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance, term used to describe a flowering of African-American literature and art in the 1920s, mainly in the Harlem district of New York City. During the mass migration of African Americans from the rural agricultural South to the urban industrial North era. Indiana Univ. Press. 552p. notes. c2004. 0-253-21675-3. $24.95. SA * The "Greater Harlem Renaissance," as defined by Gable, stretched from 1912 to 1940. From within this broader than usual range of years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time editor has drawn 52 works of short fiction, beginning with a short story by Alice Dunbar-Nelson Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson (July 19, 1875 - September 18 1935) was an African American poet, journalist and political activist. She was one of the many African-Americans involved in the Harlem Renaissance. that appeared in The Crisis in 1914 and culminating with "Girl, Colored" by Marion Minus, which first appeared in 1940. By carefully arranging the works in chronological order with a short historical event list for each year, Gable attempts to show the range and progression of theme, style, subject, and social awareness throughout the period. While a few of the stories are by often-anthologized Harlem Renaissance writers (e.g., Toomer, McKay, Hughes, Hurston), most are not. Gable's purpose, which he explains in his excellent preface, is to offer a wide representation of male and female authors of short fiction during this period. A 20-page introduction by Darryl Dickson-Carr provides a thorough historical background for the works that follow. The works of fiction themselves are quite uneven in style, intensity, and impact. They present a mosaic of the African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. experience of the time. Their tone is, for the most part, somber when it is not deeply depressed or smoldering smol·der also smoul·der intr.v. smol·dered, smol·der·ing, smol·ders 1. To burn with little smoke and no flame. 2. with anger. Nothing here can be read lightly. Gable provides a surprising array of background sources to guide the reader. A short biography of each author is accompanied by an individual bibliography as well as a general bibliography of the period. There is also an extremely helpful chart that cross-tabs common issues, topic, and plots of all the stories. Patricia Moore, Brookline, MA |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion