- "It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley."
Analyzing the role of religion and spirituality in African American literature.
African American religion: This refers to the various religious beliefs, practices, and traditions of African Americans, including Christianity, Islam, and traditional African religions.
African American literature and spirituality: This refers to works of literature by African American writers that explore themes of God, faith, and spirituality.
The role of religion in the history of African Americans: This topic examines the ways that religion has played a central role in the history of African Americans, from the days of slavery to the civil rights movement and beyond.
Spiritual practices and rituals in African American communities: This explores the various spiritual practices and rituals that are part of African American religious traditions, such as gospel music, prayer meetings, and the celebration of Kwanzaa.
Theology and spirituality in African American literature: This looks at the ways that African American writers have explored theological and spiritual concepts in their works, such as the nature of God, the meaning of redemption, and the power of divine grace.
The spiritual and social dynamics of African American churches: This examines the social and spiritual dynamics that exist within African American churches, including the role of pastors, the importance of community, and the significance of the gospel message.
Intersectionality between race and religion: This topic explores how race and religion intersect in African American communities, and how these dynamics have impacted the social and political history of African Americans.
Spirituality, morality, and justice in African American literature: This examines the ways that African American writers have explored issues of morality and justice in their works, such as the quest for social justice and the search for personal and spiritual fulfillment.
The impact of religion on African American intellectual and artistic traditions: This topic looks at how African American writers, artists, and intellectuals have been influenced by religious traditions and how they have used their art and intellect to explore spiritual themes.
Gender, sexuality, and spirituality in African American literature: This explores the ways that African American writers have explored issues of gender and sexuality through a spiritual lens, including topics such as same-sex relationships, female empowerment, and gender identity.
- "Before the high point of enslaved people narratives, African-American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives."
- "The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives."
- "The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a great period of flowering in literature and the arts."
- "Influenced both by writers who came North in the Great Migration and those who were immigrants from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands."
- "African American writers have been recognized by the highest awards, including the Nobel Prize given to Toni Morrison in 1993."
- "Among the themes and issues explored in this literature are the role of African Americans within the larger American society, African-American culture, racism, slavery, and social equality."
- "African-American writing has tended to incorporate oral forms, such as spirituals, sermons, gospel music, blues, or rap."
- "As African Americans' place in American society has changed over the centuries, so has the focus of African-American literature."
- "Before the American Civil War, the literature primarily consisted of memoirs by people who had escaped from enslavement."
- "Free blacks expressed their oppression in a different narrative form. Free blacks in the North often spoke out against enslavement and racial injustices by using the spiritual narrative."
- "At the turn of the 20th century, non-fiction works by authors such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington debated how to confront racism in the United States."
- "During the Civil Rights Movement, authors such as Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation and black nationalism."
- "Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, which won the Pulitzer Prize; and Beloved by Toni Morrison."
- "African-American literature can be defined as writings by people of African descent living in the United States."
- "All African-American literary study 'speaks to the deeper meaning of the African-American presence in this nation.'"
- "African-American literature explores the issues of freedom and equality long denied to Blacks in the United States, along with further themes such as African-American culture, racism, religion, enslavement, a sense of home, segregation, migration, feminism, and more."
- "In the early Republic, African-American literature represented a way for free blacks to negotiate their identity in an individualized republic."
- "Thus, an early theme of African-American literature was, like other American writings, what it meant to be a citizen in post-Revolutionary America."
- "They often tried to exercise their political and social autonomy in the face of resistance from the white public."