From Behind the Veil: A Study of Afro-American Narrative

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University of Illinois Press, 1991 - 225 pages
This pioneering study of Afro-American narrative is far more critical, historical, and textual than biographical, chronological, and atextual. Robert Stepto asserts that Afro-American culture has its store of canonical stories or pregeneric myths, the primary one being the quest for freedom and literacy. This second edition includes a new preface and an afterward entitled "Distrust of the Reader in Afro-American Narratives."
 

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Contents

I Rose and Found My Voice Narration Authentication and Authorial Control in Four Slave Narratives
3
Lost in a Cause Booker T Washingtons Up from Slavery
32
The Quest of the Weary Traveler W E B Du Boiss The Souls of Black Folk
52
THE RESPONSE
93
Lost in a Quest James Weldon Johnsons The Autobiography of an ExColoured Man
95
Literacy and Ascent Richard Wrights Black Boy
128
Literacy and Hibernation Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man
163
Afterword
195
Bibliography
217
Index
221
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