{"product_id":"on-freedom-and-the-will-to-adorn-the-art-of-the-african-american-essay-paperback","title":"On Freedom and the Will to Adorn: The Art of the African American Essay - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eCheryl a. Wall\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough they have written in various genres, African American writers as notable and diverse as W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker have done their most influential work in the essay form. \u003ci\u003eThe Souls of Black Folk\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Fire Next Time\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eIn Search of Our Mothers' Gardens\u003c\/i\u003e are landmarks in African American literary history. Many other writers, such as Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, and Richard Wright, are acclaimed essayists but achieved greater fame for their work in other genres; their essay work is often overlooked or studied only in the contexts of their better-known works. Here Cheryl A. Wall offers the first sustained study of the African American essay as a distinct literary genre. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeginning with the sermons, orations, and writing of nineteenth-century men and women like Frederick Douglass who laid the foundation for the African American essay, Wall examines the genre's evolution through the Harlem Renaissance. She then turns her attention to four writers she regards as among the most influential essayists of the twentieth century: Baldwin, Ellison, June Jordan, and Alice Walker. She closes the book with a discussion of the status of the essay in the twenty-first century as it shifts its medium from print to digital in the hands of writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brittney Cooper. Wall's beautifully written and insightful book is nothing less than a redefinition of how we understand the genres of African American literature. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eCheryl A. Wall is the Board of Governors Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English at Rutgers University and author of \u003ci\u003eWorrying the Line\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.65 x 9.21 x 6.14 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 07, 2019\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47433883648178,"sku":"9781469646909","price":56.63,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/7842caae90522b9f1886721099679196.webp?v=1778616178","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/on-freedom-and-the-will-to-adorn-the-art-of-the-african-american-essay-paperback","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}