Children's Literature of the Harlem Renaissance

"This readable and informative account... raises issues about the political and social intent of all children's literature. Essential." --Choice

During the New Negro Renaissance, African American children's literature became a crucial medium through which a disparate community forged bonds of cultural, economic, and aesthetic solidarity. Employing interdisciplinary critical strategies, including social, educational, and publishing history, canon-formation theory, and extensive archival research, Children's Literature of the Harlem Renaissance analyzes childhood as a site of emerging black cultural nationalism. It explores the period's vigorous exchange about the nature and identity of black childhood and uncovers the networks of African Americans who worked together to transmit black history and culture to a new generation.

An essential work demonstrating the importance of children's literature to the writers of the Harlem Renaissance

Katharine Capshaw Smith is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where she teaches children's literature and African American literature. Her work has appeared in Children's Literature; Southern Quarterly; The Lion and the Unicorn; Melus: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States; Ariel; and other publications.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Emblematic Black Child: Du Bois's Crisis Publications

2. Creating the Past, Present, and Future: New Negro Children's Drama

3. The Legacy of the South: Revisiting the Plantation Tradition

4. The Peacemakers: Carter G. Woodson's Circle

5. The Aesthetics of Black Children's Literature: Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index