San Antonio College Library

In this introduction to the Nobel Prizewinning fiction of Toni Morrison, Jan Furman surveys six novels, a short story, and a book of criticism to reconstruct the development of Morrison's creative vision and to assess its influence in contemporary literature. She traces the recurrent characters, themes, and settings that embody Morrison's literary vision and strike such familiar chords for Morrison's readers. Demonstrating that Morrison strongly supports...

This collection of essays explains the emergence of black women novelists in contemporary American literature and the cultural and personal influences that made it possible for them to find their literary authority. Beginning with the 19th century origins of the tradition--the autobiographical writings and slave narratives -- the volume discusses individual writers such as Pauline Hopkins, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Ann Petry and Octavia Butler; the aggregate...

"Midwives, women healers and root workers have been central figures in the African American folk traditions. Particularly in Black communities in the rural south, these women served vital social, cultural and political functions. It was believed that they possessed magical powers: they negotiated the barrier between life and death and were often regarded as the "knower" in a community. Today even as medical science has discredited or superseded their...