The Afro-modernist Epic And Literary History

This volume traces the unique lineage of the Afro-modernist epic poem, showing the contribution of African American poets Melvin B. Tolson, Langston Hughes, and Amiri Baraka. Review: In a revelatory remapping of the African American literary tradition, Kathy Lou Schultz tracks the emergence of 'Afro-modernist' poetics among a lineage of writers whose work defies the limitations of our habitual compartmentalization of history into discrete periods such as the 'Harlem Renaissance' or the 'Black Arts Movement.' If the book first of all delivers a compelling and much-needed case for Tolson's importance, it also offers new insights into the long-form experiments of Hughes and Baraka, finding in the black adoption of the epic form an impatience with cramp and constriction; an impulse for constellation and montage; an aspiration towards a diasporic poetry that would combine the unpredictability of music with the authority of the archive. - Brent Hayes Edwards, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, USA and author of The Practice of Diaspora A major contribution to African American literary studies and to the larger field of American Poetry.

This will be one of those discourse-changing books. - Aldon Lynn Nielsen, The George and Barbara Kelly Professor of American Literature, The Pennsylvania State University, USA 'A major contribution to African American literary studies and to the larger field of American poetry. This will be one of those discourse-changing books.' - Aldon Nielsen, George and Barbara Kelly Professor of American Literature, The Pennsylvania State University, USA