From: heath@athena.cs.uga.edu (Terrance Heath)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Some Canonical Lists
Date: 17 Aug 92 17:59:45 GMT
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens

In article <Bt35Lu.602@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> msmorris@watsci.waterloo.edu (Mike Morris) writes:
>
>A couple of responses to Roger Squires. He writes:
>  	
>  
>I said it would be neat to see such books as _100 of the Best
>African-American Books_... and Roger responded:
>  
>  	I second this!  Could Mr. Heath, et al, work on such a
>  	list and post it to the net?  Please!
>
>A list now would be interesting to me. But, I think expertise
>counts, and I'd be much more interested in Terrance's distillation
>once he has read, say, 1000 such works over many years, studied a few
>in detail, and *then* tells us in a page per work why he's chosen
>the particular 100 he has.
>  

	Actually I would be inclined to agree with Mike on this one. I
don't feel quite qualified to compose such a list, mainly becuase I
have not had time to do any real study in that area of literature, at
least none beyond the reading I do on my own time. I am, after all,
still trying to finish degree in English Literature (Can we say
"Canon", boys and girls?), and that keeps me quite busy with other
(insert your own descriptive phrase or adjective here) writers.
Perhaps I will have more time in Grad School to dedicate to studying a
more specific field of literature.
	I could only post a list of those books I have read, or
started to read (and haven't yet finished), which one's I liked and
why. At least, that much I would feel qualified to post.  My own
reading, though, keeps leading me to newer works, and in the back of
my mind I am putting together what I would consider a decent series of
study in African-American lit. Sort of a syllabus of my own
independent study. I'm not making it up as I go along, but rather
letting one work lead me to others.
	There is the problem of where to begin.  Does one start with
the Early African-American novels like _Clotel_, or _Our_Nig_ or
_Incedents_in_the_Life_of_a_Slave_Girl_?   Or does one start with the
slave narratives, many of which were recorded after the Civil War and
on into the 1930's?  I'd probably start with the narratives, though
they come after the early novels in chronology, and then move on to
the early novels.  Some of the novels require and understanding of the
popular literay vehichles of the time (with a nod to American and
English lit), such as the sentimental novel when reading _Our_Nig_.
Other narratives, like that of Sojourner Truth, are hard to place as
they were dictated to white abolitionists who took some liberties with
the text to forward their own political orientations.  Definitely the
narrative of Frederick Douglas, which sets a pattern for many
African-American writers who will follow.  Also include the
_Up_from_Slavery_ by Booker T. Washington among the narratives.
	There are other novels that might follow that particular
series, following blck authors from Reconstruction (My focus tends
toward black writers from the American South.  Include authors like
Charles W. Chestnutt, Ida B. Wells, etc.) through the Harlem
Rennaisance (Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, Zora Neale Hurston, etc.)
through the Black Arts Movement and right up to modern authors.
	As I said, I haven't studied enough of the literature to speak
with authority about many of the works that might be contained in such
a "canon". I've had other fish to fry to the last 8 years (coutning
High School), but perhaps I will have more of substance to say later.
Give me time...like years.


-- 
"Black men loving black men is THE revolutionary act!"
			-Joseph Beam_
Terrance Heath 
heath@athena.cs.uga.edu