Liberation Memories: The Rhetoric and Poetics of John Oliver Killens (African American Life Series) [Hardcover]

Keith Gilyard (Author)

Book Description

Series: African American Life Series | Publication Date: April 2003

This first book-length study of John Oliver Killens aims to help secure his place in literary history and explores his creation of an inspiring Black vernacular art - one that enobles people of African descent and urges their political liberation.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

No serious history of the development of the African American novel from the 1950s onward can be written without reference to John Oliver Killens. A two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize and founding chairman of the legendary Harlem Writers Guild, Killens was regarded by many as a spiritual father who inspired a generation of African American novelists with his politically charged works. Seeking to strengthen our understanding of this important literary figure, Keith Gilyard departs from standard critical frameworks to reveal Killens's novels as artful renderings of rich African American rhetorical forms and verbal traditions. Rejecting the "pure art" position, Killens sought to articulate Black heroism particularly within a family or community context, offering a set of values he deemed liberatory. He focused on rendering noble and polemical characters, and his work represents a distinguished fusion of sociopolitical persuasion (rhetoric) and literary artifact (poetics).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: Wayne State Univ Pr (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814330576
• ISBN-13: 978-0814330579
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,630,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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