Title: Black Girlhood in the Nineteenth Century
Description: "Long portrayed as a masculine endeavor, the African American struggle for progress often found expression through an unlikely literary figure: the black girl. Nazera Sadiq Wright uses heavy archival research on a wide range of texts about African American girls to explore this understudied phenomenon. As Wright shows, the figure of the black girl in African American literature provided a powerful avenue for exploring issues like domesticity, femininity, and proper conduct. The characters' actions, however fictional, became a rubric for African American citizenship and racial progress. At the same time, their seeming dependence and insignificance allegorized the unjust treatment of African Americans. Wright reveals fascinating girls who, possessed of a premature knowing and wisdom beyond their years, projected a courage and resiliency that made them exemplary representations of the project of racial advance and citizenship"--Publisher description.
Subjects: African american women, African American girls, History, African Americans, Social conditions, Politics and government, Political culture, Intellectual life, American literature, African American authors, History and criticism, African Americans in literature, Girls in literature, Politics and literature, Race relations, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / African American, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Children's Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies, Schwarze, Mädchen, Literatur