"Who Set You Flowin'?" : The African-American Migration Narrative (Race and American Culture)
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Book Description
Twentieth-century America has witnessed the most widespread and sustained movement of African-Americans from the South to urban centers in the North. Who Set You Flowin'? examines the impact of this dislocation and urbanization, identifying the resulting Migration Narratives as a major genre
in African-American cultural production. Griffin takes an interdisciplinary approach with readings of several literary texts, migrant correspondence, painting, photography, rap music, blues, and rhythm and blues. From these various sources Griffin isolates the tropes of Ancestor, Stranger, and Safe
Space, which, though common to all Migration Narratives, vary in their portrayal. She argues that the emergence of a dominant portrayal of these tropes is the product of the historical and political moment, often challenged by alternative portrayals in other texts or artistic forms, as well as
intra-textually. Richard Wright's bleak, yet cosmopolitan portraits were countered by Dorothy West's longing for Black Southern communities. Ralph Ellison, while continuing Wright's vision, reexamined the significance of Black Southern culture. Griffin concludes with Toni Morrison embracing the
South "as a site of African-American history and culture," "a place to be redeemed."
"Who Set You Flowin'?": The African-American Migration Narrative (Race and American Culture),Farah Jasmine Griffin,Oxford University Press, USA,0195088964,20th Century American Novel And Short Story,African American Novel And Short Story,African American authors,African Americans,American fiction,English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh,Ethnic Issues,Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General,History and criticism,Intellectual life,Literary Collections,Literature: Classics,Rural-urban migration in literature,Black studies,Civil rights & citizenship,Cultural studies,English,Immigration & emigration,Inter-war period, 1918-1939,Literature/English | American Literature | African American,Postwar period, 1945 to c 2000,Second World War, 1939-1945,Social Science / African-American Studies,Social history,USA
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