num_pages: 256
description: The stories in The Conjure Woman were Charles W. Chesnutt's first great literary success and since their initial publication in 1899 they have come to be seen as some of the most remarkable works of African American literature from the Emancipation through the Harlem Renaissance. In the tradition of Uncle Remus the conjure tale listens in on a poor black southerner speaking strong dialect as he recounts a local incident to a transplanted northerner for the northerner's enlightenment and edification. But in Chesnutt's hands the tradition is transformed. No longer a reactionary flight of nostalgia for the antebellum South the stories in this book celebrate and at the same time question the folk culture they so pungently portray and ultimately convey the pleasures and anxieties of a world in transition. Written in the late nineteenth century a time of enormous growth and change for a country only recently reunited in peace these stories act as the uneasy meeting ground for the culture of northern capitalism professionalism and Christianity and the underdeveloped southern economy a kind of colonial Third World whose power is manifest in life charms magic spells and ha'nts all embodied by the ruling figure of the conjure woman. Humorous heart-breaking lyrical and wise these stories make clear why the fiction of Charles W. Chesnutt has continued to captivate audiences for a century.
language: English
title: The Conjure Woman
publisher: University of Michigan Press