Title: Conversions and visions in the writings of African-American women
Description: Conversions and Visions in the Writings of African-American Women is a cultural study of the ways in which religion and literature have collaborated to promote self-affirmation among African-American women. From nineteenth-century autobiography to twentieth-century fiction, Kimberly Rae Connor explores the ancestral influence of religion and literature on African-American women's creative development and writings, offering new insights into the authors, their works, and their effect on society.

Drawing upon literary theory, women's studies, and religious studies, Connor expands the categories by which African-American writings are traditionally read. Using the concept of "religious conversion" as a paradigm, Connor examines an African-American woman's achievement of selfhood as a unique experience characterized more by a turning toward and embracing of self than by a turning away from sin.

The subsequent achievement of selfhood is then based on the interplay of individual and community identities. Connor suggests that the distinctiveness of African-American women's experiences and writings can transcend their immediate communities and be brought to bear on women's experiences in general, making their individual stories more accessible and meaningful to the whole of humankind.
Subjects: African American authors, African American women, African American women in literature, American literature, Conversion in literature, History and criticism, Intellectual life, Religion and literature, Visions in literature, Women and literature, Women authors, Visions dans la litterature, Auteurs noirs americains, Conversion dans la litterature, Konversation, Ecrits de femmes noirs americains, Femmes dans la litterature, Ecrivaines noires americaines dans la litterature, Religion et litterature, Schwarze, Vision, Frauenliteratur, Histoire et critique, Litterature americaine, Konversion, Vision (Motiv), Konversion (Religion, Motiv), American literature, african american authors, history and criticism, American literature, women authors, Afro-American authors
Places: United States