Talk:African-American literature

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Sentence fragments

 * "Also, Briton Hammon's "The Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverence of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man", 1760." - This is a sentence fragment. Awadewit (talk) 15:26, 10 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Poet Phillis Wheatley (1753–84), who published her book Poems on Various Subjects in 1773, three years before American independence. - This is a sentence fragment. How should we connect Wheatley to the other writers in this paragraph? That will help us write this sentence. Awadewit (talk) 15:29, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

African American Vernacular English in literature
Unlike many language articles, the article on AAVE has no discussion of how this variety of English has been used in literature. I'm sure this is something that has been discussed by scholars, and I wondered if anyone would be in a position to add a short section to that article. Many thanks if you can add anything. Itsmejudith (talk) 14:08, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Eye dialect may have something to say. Rich Farmbrough, 20:12, 23 July 2010 (UTC).

Civil Rights Movement section anemic
What about Cleaver's Soul on Ice?

The article mentions no African-American literature from the 1960s. It's a little hard to believe that nothing came out of that most volatile decade. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.94.82.148 (talk) 22:26, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

OR removed
"This view is supported by the fact that many African American authors—and writers representing other minority groups—consistently reach the tops of the best-seller lists. If their literature only appealed to their individual ethnic groups, this would not be possible."

This is a synthesis of the uncited "many African American authors—and writers representing other minority groups—consistently reach the tops of the best-seller lists." and hypothetical "If their literature only appealed to their individual ethnic groups, this would not be possible"  (37 million is a lot of people.) in support of "This view". Rich Farmbrough, 21:33, 23 July 2010 (UTC).

Article title
There is a debate on the use of hyphens and dashes (could be a dash depending on the out-come) at WP:MOS covered by an WP:Arbcom moratorium but the use of a hyphen in this title is not correct by any measure that I can see. There are several articles that have been created using other than a space between African and American and I think this needs attention when the issue is settled. Otr500 (talk) 15:07, 20 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Just to clarify: the issue is en-dashes, not em-dashes, which would never be used for African(-)American. Also, the relevant section is Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style. Aristophanes 68   (talk)  18:03, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

relationship to writers in other genres?
As it stands now, the article seems to mainly focus on what you might call a genre of literature, African-American literature, rather than more broadly all literature written by African-Americans. That's definitely important to cover in an article, but it would also be interesting if it covered the relationship to African-American authors in other genres as well—for example, black science fiction is fairly important, but not mentioned here. --Delirium (talk) 23:53, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Hello All! Keeping this in mind, I do intend to include a short summary of more specific contributions to these fictional genres under the recent history section. I've been working with genres like science fiction/dystopian/and Gothic, which AA literature is making ways to address these themes and common tropes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Negron.grace (talk • contribs) 20:59, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

Black = African-American?
I was surprised to be redirected here from "Black literature". What about literature by non-American blacks? 86.159.192.146 (talk) 14:29, 12 September 2012 (UTC)


 * That's a good point. Can you think of another article to which Black literature should redirect? — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 17:57, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Women Writers
To whom it may concern: I would like to inform everyone that due to the lack of information on women writers on the page, I will be adding female African American writers to the page. I look forward to your input. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mjay22 (talk • contribs) 06:36, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Missing Writers
There are NO enWP entries for the Old School Books afr.-am. crime writers Robert Deane Pharr, Roland S. Jefferson, Herbert Simmons and Charles Perry - there is an entry for Clarence Cooper, Jr. (see also the french WP entry with french ref.. Also misssing in enWP is the poet Samuel W. Allen/ Pseud. Paul Vesey--2003:74:4E05:4B5A:381C:68C7:CB42:6F42 (talk) 16:49, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

This page is missing any discussion of Anna Julia Cooper, author of A Voice From the South and landmark early Black feminist 99.250.169.57 (talk) 21:15, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:African-American gospel which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 23:20, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 3 October 2023
African American literature originated from the slave narrative. Add this information to the history section.

Source: https://www.sttammanylibrary.org/blogs/post/brief-history-of-african-american-literature-part-1-slave-narratives/#:~:text=Slave%20narratives%20became%20an%20important,and%20their%20lives%20after%20slavery. 216.238.80.105 (talk) 03:14, 3 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: This does not appear to be correct. As can be seen already from the History section, there were numerous pieces of literature published before the slave narrative gained popularity. Tollens (talk) 06:30, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Black Women and Popular Culture
— Assignment last updated by Bezzza (talk) 23:26, 5 December 2023 (UTC)