Neo-African literature : a history of black writing / by Janheinz Jahn.

Translation of Geschichte der neoafrikanischen Literatur.

Each chapter is followed by bibliographical references, includes index.

Part one: introductory -- 1. Definitions -- 2. Early writers of African descent.

Part two: The African scene -- 3. African oral literature -- 4. Afro-Arabic literature -- 5. Apprentice and protest literature -- 6. The tragedy of Southern Bantu literature.

Part three: The American scene -- 7. Nineteenth Century Afro-American literature -- 8. Minstrelsy and Voodoo -- 9. The Negro spiritual -- 10. Blues and Calypso -- 11. 'The Negro renaissance' -- 12. 'The golden years' -- 13. The depression -- 14. 'Indigenism' and 'Negrism.'

Part four: the new problems -- 15. The Negritude school -- 16. Conclusion: towards modern African literature.

"Africa's cultural heritage is increasingly acknowledged as a major force shaping the consciousness of America's black community, and the rediscovery of the African past continues to throw new light on the achievements of black artists in the United States. Yet there has never been an attempt to relate the origins of black writing - both in the U.S. and elsewhere - to the African tradition. Janheinz Jahn has now undertaken the first full-scale investigation of the elements common to literature of black Americans, the new literatures now arising in the infant African nations, and in all the other major areas - such as Latin America and the West Indies - where peoples of African descent have kept alive, in whatever modifies form, the cultural past brought from the African continent...." - from the dust jacket.

in an appendix titled, "Survey of the Material," the author touches on his methodology, provides data on sources, and explains the rational for inclusion or exclusion of certain works.

From the library of Roscoe and Oletta Proctor.