Synopses & Reviews
Black Chant traces the embrace and transformation of black modernisms and postmodernisms by African-American poets in the decades after the Second World War. Centering on groups of avant-garde poets, the study particularly attends to those poets whose radical forms of new writing formed the basis for much of what followed in the Black Arts period. Exploring the farthest reaches of black creative experimentation in words and music, Black Chant yields an invaluable reassessment of African-American cultural history as it has been shaped throughout the era we now call postmodern.
Review
"Aldon Nielsen's Black Chant: Languages of African-American Postmodernism provides a fine combination of advocacy and intense, careful research. ...Nielsen's book should serve as an important polemical warning and as equally important evidence for the significant bodies of poetry that are being neglected today." Contemporary Literature"...the first major book to present a compelling argument fokr a black postmodernist poetics, one that will surely gain prominence..." John Grey, American Literature"WIthout doubt, Nielsen's study has to be considered a significant re-mapping of the history of African-American poetry in the context of music and performance." Wilfried Raussert, American Studies"...the author offers contemporary readers and students alike a grand opportunity to capture in one book, a profound examination of modern currents in black poetry in America." Julie E. Thompsom, American Studies
Synopsis
A study of postmodernism and African-American poets.
Synopsis
Centering on avant-garde poets, this study traces the embrace and transformation of black modernism and postmodernisms by African-American poets in the decades after the Second World War. It particularly attends to poets whose radical forms of new writing formed the basis for the Black Arts period.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-280) and index.
Table of Contents
Part I. The Lining of the Lymn: 1. The Calligraphy of Black Chant; 2. Outlandish; 3. A New York State of Mind; Part II. Slipping into Darkness: 4. Out there a minute: the omniverse of jazz and text; 5. Other planes of there.