Civil Rights and the Environment in African-American Literature, 1895-1941

About this book

The beginning of the 20th century marked a new phase of the battle for civil rights in America. But many of the era's most important African-American writers were also acutely aware of the importance of environmental justice to the struggle. Civil Rights and the Environment in African-American Literature is the first book to explore the centrality of environmental problems to writing from the civil rights movement in the early decades of the century. Bringing ecocritical perspectives to bear on the work of such important writers as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and Depression-era African-American writing, This book brings to light a vital new perspective on ecocriticism and modern American literary history.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Up from Nature: Racial Uplift and Ecological Agencies in Booker T. Washington's Autobiographies
2. W. E. B. Du Bois at the Grand Canyon: Nature, History, and Race in Darkwater
3. The Crisis, the Politics of Nature, and the Harlem Renaissance: Effie Lee Newsome's Eco-poetics
4. Sawmills and Swamps: Ecological Collectives in Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men and Their Eyes Were Watching God
5. From Black Marxism to Industrial Ecosystem: Racial and Ecological Crisis in William Attaway's Blood on the Forge

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

John Claborn is Lecturer in English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.