Toni Cade Bambara

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Rounding out the “30 Days of 100 Novels” series, I end by focusing on Toni Cade Bambara. Her short stories, often times, overshadow her work as a novelist. Her novel, The Salt Eaters, is included in the “100 Novels Project.”

Actually, Bambara’s thematic content in her novels and short stories share many commonalities. As a Black Arts Writer, Bambara came of age during a time where African American writers were determined to define black art by its own merits and away from Eurocentric standards. As a leading female voice during the movement, Bambara placed a special emphasis in her writing on black females—both girls and women.

Edward P. Jones

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Edward P. Jones is another writer in the “100 Novels Collection” who is more known for his short stories. Surprisingly, his novel, The Known World, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2004. Even still, Jones has expressed favor for using the short story form over the novel form in his writing.

His novel, a neo-slave narrative, explores human bondage from an alternative perspective. Jones allows readers to envision the dark period of legalized human bondage in America from the perspective of a black slave owner. Jones tells the stories of people living in Manchester Country, Virginia in episodic form. His novel reveals how social and political structures impeded upon the good intentions of people and dictate their actions. In other words, Jones’s suggests that despite a person’s intentions to do good, the societal norm can most often influence a person’s train of thought and behavior.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Paul Laurence Dunbar is primarily known as a poet; however, his body of writing is extremely diverse. For instance, over his lifetime Dunbar wrote a dozen books of poetry, four books of short stories, five novels, and a play. Two of his novels, The Fanatics (1901) and The Sport of the Gods (1902) are included in the “100 Novels Collection.”

Dunbar is remembered most for his use of Negro Dialect or African American Vernacular English in his writing.  Geneva Smitherman defines AAVE or Black Dialect as “an Africanized form of English reflecting Black America’s linguistic-cultural African heritage and the conditions of servitude, oppression, and life in America. Black Language is Euro-American speech with Afro-American meaning, nuance, tone, and gestures…It has allowed blacks to create a culture of survival in an alien land, and as a by-product has served to enrich the language of all Americans.”

Langston Hughes

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Quite often, Langston Hughes is thought of primarily as a poet. Popular historical appraisals of Hughes tend to focus more on his poetry and do not place as much emphasis on his work as a playwright, novelist, and even newspaper columnist. Huhges's novel Not Without Laughter is apart of the "100 Novels Collection" and mirrors the thematic representations found in his poetry and other works. 

One common theme in his writing, though, is the struggles of working class people. Hughes probes the lives of working class people in his writing to offer glimpses of certain economic, political, and social barriers that confront America’s proletariat. His fascination with leftist political ideologies creeps into his work and exposes his disapproving attitude of the racially charged capitalist culture and his yearning for America to be more encompassing of minorities, especially black people. 

Frederick Douglass

[By Kenton Rambsy]

When the name “Frederick Douglass” is uttered, often times, people think of the famous ex- social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. Rarely, though, do people think of Douglass as a fiction writer.

Frederick Douglass serves as an important figure in African American and American history. His contributions to American Literature have provided future generations of scholars an opportunity to study his philosophies about race, equality, and politics in America during the nineteenth century. Although Douglass is one of our most famous ex-slaves primarily because of his autobiography, few people or at least not enough of us recognize the significance of his fictional work The Heroic Slave.

5 notable NYC Female Characters

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Yesterday, I focused on five notable characters that resided in NYC at some point throughout the action of the novel. Today, I have decided to focus on black women characters in five novels from the “100 Novels Collection.” Similar to the male characters, these female characters all face different challenges, but NYC seems to be a recurring setting for the action in the lives of these diverse sets of black men.

5 Notable NYC Male Characters

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Today, I focused on five novels in the “100 Novels Collection” and identified five memorable characters. These characters all live in NYC or visit the city at some point in the novel. These characters all face different challenges, but NYC seems to be a recurring setting for the action in the lives of these diverse sets of black men.

Character Migrations To NYC

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Today, I have identified three novels that represent characters making migrations to New York City. In the “100 Novels Collection,” many of the characters move to NYC and leave the South behind. Most often, in our collection, male protagonists are making these moves.

The selection of three novels below, offers insight into the particular ways in which black novelists envision NYC and its relation to black life and black art in general. 

NYC Novels by decades

[By Kenton Rambsy]

How do we, as readers, envision New York City? How do publishing houses help to create visions of New York City? The publishers tend to use more enticing images and illustrations of brownstones, skyscrapers, and city streets to create impressions of city life. These images play on readers’ sensibilities and contribute to how we think of the novels’ environments and characters.

In our “100 Novels Collection,” it is notable that nearly every decade (except 1910-1919) has a novel that uses New York City as a major setting.  These rendering of New York demonstrate the importance of the city in the literary imaginations of black writers.

Below, I have provided a bibliography, by decade, of novels in the study that take place in NYC.

NYC Novels

[By Kenton Rambsy]

22 novels in the “100 Novels Collection” that take place in New York City or have major scenes in New York. A closer look at these novels and authors and their relationships to each other reveals useful ideas about literary history.

In the 22 novels featured in this exhibit, NYC—most often, Harlem—was a central location for each novel’s storyline. Possibly, the prevalence of urban areas such as New York City as settings for novels indicates that writers view city environments as fertile grounds for positioning their narratives.

Richard Wright

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Following yesterday’s entry on Ralph Ellison, I am concluding this week on Richard Wright as I offer up a few notes on how Wikipedia portrays his biographical page. On last week, I examined how his novel Native Son—a novel in the “100 Novels Collection”—was presented on Wikipedia to multiple internet users.

Since Wikipedia comes up first when searching names on Google and other search engines, I found it necessary to examine these representations. I encourage those reading to pay attention to the Wikipedia developments so we can more readily assess how the site is influencing larger impressions of African American writers and their work.

Ralph Ellison

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Following yesterday’s post about Toni Morrison. Today, I focused on Ralph Ellison, another author in the “100 Novels Collection” Similar to my examining his novel’s Wikipedia page on last week, Ellison’s personal page provided interesting discoveries as well.

Ellison is known most for his novel Invisible Man published in 1952. However, an examination of his Wikipedia page revealed that the first chapter of the novel, “Battle Royal,” actually was a short story at first.

A closer look at the Wikipedia pages of black authors and their works lends insight into how African American literature is framed to broad internet audiences. Perhaps, more attention should be placed on Wikipedia and how it shapes impressions of black writing.

Toni Morrison

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Yesterday’s post on Zora Neale Hurston provided me with valuable information on how Wikipedia presents her to internet users.

Today, I decided to concentrate on Toni Morrison. Last week, I did on post informing readers of what I learned about Morrison’s novel Beloved. Today, I focus solely on her author page on Wikipedia. Many novels and authors in the “100 Novels Collection” have extensively developed pages that reveal a wide range of information. I think attention to these factors are key to better understand how black writers and novels are presented on Wikipedia.

Zora Neale Hurston

[By Kenton Rambsy]

On yesterday, I posted on “What Wikipedia has Taught me about Alice Walker.” As a author in the “100 Novels Collection,” I composed an entry on her describing what I have learned about Walker from Wikipedia. One fact I learned was that Walker’s 1975 article “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston” revived interest in Hurston’s work which had seemingly fallen into obscurity.  

Quite naturally, today I extend the discussions of what Wikipedia has taught me about novelist by focusing on Zora Neale Hurston. Last week, I provided a post on what Wikipedia taught me about her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Today, I continue my exploration and look at the biographies that Wikipedia provides of Hurston’s life.

Alice Walker

[By Kenton Rambsy]

On last week, I focused on select novels in the “100 Novels Collection” to discuss how Wikipedia showcased the books to internet reading audiences. Extending my conversations about Wikipedia, this week I chose to focus on the novelist to better understand what key biographical information readers may gain from the website.

Moreover, I was interested in examining how Wikipedia may present the author’s page in concert with his or her work to also influence the ways in which internet audiences interpret African American literature.

Today, I chose to start by analyzing Alice Walker and compare her Wikipedia biographical page to her novel page The Color Purple. 

Native Son

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Today, I round out my “What Wikipedia has taught me about African American Novels” week by ending with Richard Wright’s Native Son. Over the course of the week, I have picked five novels in the “100 Novels Collection” to analyze and better understand how Wikipedia frames African American novels and presents information to larger audiences.

As internet users, we should pay more attention to Wikipedia to better understand its influence on black writing. Like it or not, Wikipedia is a source that internet users draw on frequently for information. More attention to the particular trends, graphics, and sources drawn on to categorize black writing will provide us with a better understanding of how the site influences popular culture and African American literature in general.

Invisible Man

[By Kenton Rambsy]

On yesterday, I posted on what I learned about Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Most of the novels in the “100 Novels Collection” have Wikipedia pages. The level of content development varies, though.

Today, I continue the series by focusing on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. My intent with these posts is to better understand the influence Wikipedia has on African American novels and authors.

Life on the Horizon: Reoccurring Themes in African-American Literature

[By Goyland Williams]

As I stated in a previous blog post, studying trends in the “100 Novels Collection” reveals useful ways for understanding African-American literature. Looking at prominent characters in Jean Toomer’s Cane, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, reveals some glaring similarities that are frequently present in African-American literature.       

Beloved

[By Kenton Rambsy]

On yesterday, I provided a post on what Wikipedia has taught me about Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Wikipedia, since its launch, has been the source of much controversy regarding the accuracy of its information with some parties supporting the site and others parties criticizing it greatly.

Today, I continue my exploration of “What I learned from Wikipedia” by exploring Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Wikipedia serves an important function as it shapes reading audiences impressions of black novelists in our “100 Novels Collection” and larger concepts of African American literature in general.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Yesterday, I posted on what I have learned from Wikipedia about Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Over the past few years, numerous studies have been performed that examine validity of Wikipedia as a legitimate source.

My intentions of these posts is involves more than the credibility of the site, but instead, I am wondering how Wikipedia shapes the impressions of black writing. Today, I have chosen to write about my findings from Wikipedia on Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Since many people access the free Encyclopedia, my interest in Wikipedia stems from a yearning to understand how the site presents black writers and their novels (especially those in our "100 Novels Collection") to larger reading audiences.