Lists approximately 200 books and articles that examine the writings of Ralph Ellison. (GW)

Discusses the riddle posed by the dying grandfather of the narrator in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" in terms of its language, the way it functions in the narrative, and the way in which an understanding of its solutions provides an important key to the novel. (GW)

Discusses the idea that Flannery O'Connor presents Black characters not as people but as "issues" who never change and never are explored on more than a superficial level. (JM)

Asserts that, contrary to the opinion of some, there is a Black American literary tradition. Examines definitions and issues fundamental to understanding that tradition, possible reasons for previous failures to identify a Black American tradition, and elements that scholars need to analyze as they try to describe the common characteristics of…

Discusses examples of two types of rhetoric employed by characters in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man": the "old" formal rhetoric and the "new" spontaneous rhetoric. (GW)

Discusses the publications of W. E. B. Du Bois and lists them in the following categories: books, books containing short stories, poems, short fiction, and dramas. (GT)

Considers three areas of recent American criticism of "Native Son." (JM)

Examines George S. Schuyler's life and his autobiography, "Black and Conservative"; concludes that Schuyler was a unique example of a Black intellectual who struggled with the race issue for years only to emerge as a reactionary who refused to recognize race as an issue. (GW)

Examines two novels as illustrations of the Black anti-utopia: George S. Schuyler's "Black No More" and William Melvin Kelly's "A Different Drummer." (GW)

Shows that Ann Petry's writings reveal her as a significant critic of American values and illuminate the false illusions created by the American Dream. (GW)

Explores the evolution of Ernest Gaines's vision through his four works of fiction, a movement from a personal and racial history toward history sensed as the rebirth of a people--their liberation. (JM)

Shows how Bigger Thomas, in Richard Wright's "Native Son," fights to free himself from the stereotyped image others have of him and to develop his own individual identity. (GW)

Surveys plays written by black playwrights from 1917 to the present time. (GW)

Presents some initial thoughts about a Marxist interpretation of Black American literature, raises some relevant issues, and charts some possible directions that a Marxist criticism of Black literature could take. (Author/GW)

Discusses the association of the Black character (tortured, distorted, mistreated, and misjudged) with horror and the macabre in white American literature from "Letters from an American Farmer" (1782) to "Gravity's Rainbow" (1973). (JM)