African American Studies  Tags: culture minority_experience literature social_change  

This list of selected canonical works was developed by Prof. Jonathan Smith for the course English 325: African-American Literature.

Maya Angelou, 1928-

• The completed collected poems of Maya Angelou (PS3551.N464 A17 1994)
• I know why the caged bird sings (PS3551.N464 Z466 1970)

James Baldwin, 1924-1987

• Go tell it on the mountain (PS3552.A45 G62 1963)
• The fire next time (E185.61 .B195)
• Another country (PS3552.A45 A84 1962)

Toni Cade Bambara, 1939-1995

• The salt eaters (PS3552.A473 S2 1980)

Imamu Amiri Baraka [LeRoi Jones], 1934-

• Preface to a twenty volume suicide note (PS3552.A583 P7)

Arna Bontemps, 1902-1973

• Black thunder (PS3503.O474 B5 1968)

Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917-2000

• The essential Gwendolyn Brooks (PS3503.R7244 A6 2005)

Claude Brown, 1937-2002

• Manchild in the promised land (E185.97.B86 A3 1965b)

William Wells Brown, 1814?-1884

• Clotel, or, The president's daughter: a narrative of slave life in the United States (PS1139.B9 C53 2000b)

Charles W. Chesnutt, 1858-1932

• The conjure woman, and other conjure tales (PS1292.C6 A6 1993)
• The house behind the cedars (PS1292.C6 H68 1968)

J. California Cooper, [dates unknown, but contemporary]

• Family: A novel (PS3553.O5874 F36 1991)
• Some soul to keep (PS3553.O5874 S6 1987)

Countee Cullen, 1903-1946

• On these I stand: An anthology of the best poems of Countee Cullen (PS3505.U287 A6 1947)

Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895

• Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave (E449 .D74905)

Rita Dove, 1952-

• Thomas and Beulah: Poems (PS3554.O884 T47 1986)
• On the bus with Rosa Parks: Poems (PS3554.O884 O52 1999)

W.E.B. DuBois, 1868-1963

• The souls of Black folk (E185.6 .D797 1999)

Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1872-1906

• The collected poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar (PS1556 .A1 1993)

Ralph Ellison, 1914-1994

• Invisible man (PS3555.L625 I5 1952)

Charles Fuller, 1939-

• A soldier's play (PS3556.U367 S6 1982b)

Nikki Giovanni, 1943-

• The selected poems of Nikki Giovanni (PS3557.I55 A6 1996)

Lorraine Hansberry, 1930-1965

• Raisin in the sun (PS3515.A515 R3) (see PN1997 .R282 1985 for the video)

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, 1825-1911

• Iola Leroy, or Shadows uplifted (PS1799. H7I6 1988)

Michael S. Harper, 1938-

• Nightmare begins responsibility (PS3558.A6248 N5 1974)
• Images of kin: New and selected poems (PS3558.A6248 I5)

Langston Hughes, 1902-1967

• The collected works of Langston Hughes (PS3515 .U274 2001)
• The Langston Hughes reader (PS3515.U274 A6 1958)

Zora Neale Hurston, 1891-1960

• Their eyes were watching God (PS3515.U789 T639 1990) (see also the DVD at PN1997 .T42824 2005)
• Moses, man of the mountain (PS3515.U789 M6 1991)
• Jonah's gourd vine (PS3515.U789 J66 1990)

Charles Johnson, 1948-

• Middle passage (PS3560.O3735 M5 1990b)

James Weldon Johnson, 1871-1938

• The autobiography of an ex-colored man (PS3519.O2625 A95 1927)
• God's trombones (PS3519.O2625 G6 1990)

Claude McKay, 1890-1948

• Home to Harlem (PS3525.A24785 H6 1987)

Toni Morrison, 1931-

• Beloved (PS3563.O8749 B4 1987)
• Song of Solomon (PS3563.O8749 S6 1977)
• Sula (PS3563.O8749 S8)
• Tar baby (PS3563.O8749 T37 1981)

Gloria Naylor, 1950-

• The women of Brewster Place (FBC PS3564.A895 W6 1982)

Ishmael Reed, 1938-

• Mumbo jumbo (PS3568.E365 M86 1978)

Jean Toomer, 1894-1967

• Cane (PS3539.O478 C3 1988)

Alice Walker, 1944-

• The color purple (PS3573.A425 C6 1982) (see also the DVD at PN1997 .C6596 2003)
• The temple of my familiar (PS3573.A425 T46 1997)
• The third life of Grange Copeland (PS3573.A425 T454 1988)

Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915

• Up from slavery: An autobiography (E185.97.W4 A3 1996)

Phillis Wheatley, 1753-1784

• The poems of Phillis Wheatley (PS866 .W5 1989)

John A. Williams, 1925-

• The man who cried I am (PS3573.I4495 M3 1967)

August Wilson, 1945-2005

• Fences: A play (PS3573.I45677 F4 1986)
• Joe Turner's come and gone: A play in two acts (PS3573.I45677 J64 1988)
• Ma Rainey's black bottom: A play in two acts (PS3573.I45677 M3 1985)
• The piano lesson (PS3573.I45677 P54 1990b)

Harriet E. WIlson, 1825-1900

• Our Nig, or, Sketches from the life of a free Black, in a two-story white house, north, showing that slavery's shadows fall even there (PS3334.W39 O9 1983)

Richard Wright, 1908-1960

• Uncle Tom's children (PS3545.R815 U498 1938)
• Native son (PS3545.R815 N25 1940)
• Black boy: A record of childhood and youth (PS3545.R815 Z5 1969)