San Antonio College Library

"Acclaimed author and social critic James Baldwin (1924-1987) maintained that all American literature is intrinsically bound to the nation's social history and that all American writers are products of its political system. In seminal works such as Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, and The Fire Next Time, he expresses his profound belief that writers have the power to transform society, to engage the public, and to inspire and channel...

Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions. and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness...

"In this study, H. William Rice illuminates the mystery that is Ralph Ellison - the author of one complex, important novel who failed to complete his second and a black intellectual who remained notably reticent on political issues during the desegregation of his native South. Rice reads both Invisible Man and the posthumously published Juneteenth as novels that focus on the political uses of language. He explores Ellison's concept of the novel, set...

"While he lived, critics showed reluctance to engage fully the work of Ricardo Sanchez, perhaps in part because of his reputation as an iconoclastic, confrontational, even outrageous individual. Focusing on Canto y grito mi liberacion and Hechizospells, Miguel R. Lopez explicates his work and places Sanchez in the context of Chicano literature - past, present, and future. He explains clearly the relation of time and space in Sanchez's prolific work...

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Ralph Ellison and the Cultural Turn in Black Politics2. Race, Literature, and the Politics of Numbers, or Not Quite a Million Men Marching3. Of Southern Strategies4. To Move without Moving: Reconstructing the Fictions of SociologyConclusion: Invisible Man at FiftyNotesIndex.

"In this study, Dowdy uncovers and analyzes the primary rhetorical strategies, particularly figures of voice, in American political poetry from the Vietnam War-era to the present. By advancing a theoretical model that foregrounds how poems enact politically-engaged voices, the book cuts across critical studies organized by identity category and subject matter. Combining theories of agency and cultural studies, this comprehensive account of contemporary...