Literary and Sociopolitical Writings of the Black Diaspora in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Kersuze Simeon-Jones

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9780739147641
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Literary and Sociopolitical Writings of the Black Diaspora in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries traces the historiography of literary and sociopolitical movements of the Black Diaspora in the writings of key political figures. It comparatively and dialogically examines such movements as Pan-Africanism, Garveyism, Indigénisme, New Negro Renaissance, Négritude, and Afrocriollo. To study the key ideologies that emerged as collective black thought within the Diaspora, particular attention is given to the philosophies of Black Nationalism, Black Internationalism, and Universal Humanism. Each leader and writer helped establish new dimensions to evolving movements; thus, the text discerns the temporal, spatial, and conceptual development of each literary and sociopolitical movement.

To probe the comparative and transnational trajectories of the movements while concurrently examining the geopolitical distinctions, the text focuses on leaders who psychologically, culturally, and/or physically traveled throughout Africa, the Americas, and Europe, and whose ideas were disseminated and influenced a number of contemporaries and successors. Such approach dismantles geographic, language, and generation barriers, for a comprehensive analysis. Indeed, it was through the works transmitted from one generation to the next that leaders learned the lessons of history, particularly the lessons of organizational strategies, which are indispensable to sustained and successful liberation movements.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Interpreting the Concepts of Black Nationalism, Black Internationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Universal Humanism within the Diaspora
• Chapter 2: Toussaint Louverture: The Educational and Sociopolitical Legacy of a Leader
• Chapter 3: Edward Blyden, Martin Delany: Perspectives on Education and Religion
• Chapter 4: The Voices of the Foremothers: Race, Gender, and Survival
• Chapter 5: Two Personalities, One God, One Aim, One Destiny: W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and the New Negro Renaissance
• Chapter 6: Jean Price-Mars: Indigénisme and the Formulae of Social Transformation
• Chapter 7: Aimé Césaire: Négritude and the Lessons of Decolonization
• Chapter 8: Nicolás Guillén and the Afrocriollo Movement: The Valorization of African Heritage in Hispanic Culture
• Chapter 9: The Principles of Self-Governance and Black Power in the Writings of Kwame Nkrumah and Malcolm X
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Biographical Overview
• Bibliography
• About the Author