In Search Of Hannah Crafts: Critical Essays On The Bondwoman's Narrative - Hardcover

Gates, Henry Louis; Robbins, Hollis

3.85

20 ratings by Goodreads

9780465027149: In Search Of Hannah Crafts: Critical Essays On The Bondwoman's Narrative

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465027148 ISBN 13: 9780465027149

Publisher: Civitas Books, 2003

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Two years ago, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. discovered an unpublished manuscript, The Bondwoman's Narrative, By Hannah Crafts, A Fugitive Recently Escaped From North Carolina , which turned out to be the first novel by a female African-American slave ever found, and possibly the first novel written by a black women anywhere. The Bondwoman's Narrative was published in 2002. In Search of Hannah Crafts now brings together twenty-two authorities on African-American history, including Nina Baym, Jean Fagan Yellin, William Andrews, Lawrence Buell, Karen Sanchez-Eppler, and Shelley Fisher-Fishkin to examine such issues as authenticity and the history and criticism of this unique novel. The Bondwoman's Narrative will take its place in the African-American canon. In Search of Hannah Crafts is the book that scholars and students of African-American Studies, of women writers, and of slavery will need to understand this unprecedented historical and literary event.

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About the Author:

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Humanities, chair of the Afro-American Studies Department, and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University. Hollis Robbins, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, received a Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and is author of Flushing Away Sentiment: Water Politics in Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country . She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* This collection follows the astonishing discovery and eventual publication of The Bondswoman's Narrative, purportedly written by escaped slave Hannah Crafts. Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s discovery of the narrative shook the literary world in 2002. Twenty-two authorities on African American history examine this first novel by an African American woman in the context of slave narratives and women's literature. The collection begins with an examination of the literary marketplace of the 1850s, when the novel is believed to have been written, and literary influences on Crafts, including Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and William Wells Brown. Other chapters explore how the novel fits into the canon of literature, its historical context, its place among African American gothic literature, and the search for Crafts' identity. Gates includes reviews of the novel when it was first published. Among the contributors are Nina Baym, Jean Fagan Yellin, William Anderson, and Karen Sanchez-Eppler. For its penetrating look at issues regarding slavery and literature, readers interested in African American studies and women's literature will thoroughly enjoy this follow-up on Crafts' novel, whether they've read it or not. This is certain to provide further inspiration to read Crafts' own words. Vanessa Bush
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