African American Studies Commons^™

Paintings And Biodomes, Cameron Osteen

Open Books -- Open Minds: All Submissions

The novel PYM by Mat Johnson seems on the surface to be a light-hearted, comedic, summer vacation easy read. It is parodic, but not in a cynical or harsh way, and it is relatively simple and often quite silly in its plot and structure. It would be easy to read PYM and not have any consideration of it as a piece of lasting or significant literature. There are, however, many elements in PYM that open it up to analysis, revealing an intricate and extremely well-constructed novel whose themes and implications carry a great deal of significance. Jean Baudrillard's theory of …

Melvillian Whiteness In Johnson's Pym, Jess Mandeville

Open Books -- Open Minds: All Submissions

Henry Louis Gates write that "Afro-American literary history is characterized by ... formal revision," wherein "black writers read and critique other ... texts as an act of rhetorical self-definition" (992). This revision is accomplished by a unique process of signification, an "Afro-American rhetorical strategy... [that] turns on the play and chain of signifiers" (989) drawn from literary and cultural texts, utilizing techniques such as "figuration, troping, ... parody ... [and] pastiche" (992).

Tsalal, Patrick Pride

Open Books -- Open Minds: All Submissions

In “Tsalal: The 19th Century American Nightmare” I examine Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket through Toni Morrison’s theory that an African presence exist in 19th-century American literature. In “Black Matter(s)” Morrison argues that this African presence in 19th century literature expresses the fears of American society. Thus, I examine The Narrative of Gordon Arthur Pym in order to see how blackness symbolizes the fears of 19th-century America.

Beyond The Black Horizon, Aaron Bruce

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Although U.S. colleges and universities continue to discuss creative ways to increase the number of African American collegians participating in study abroad, this research is limited when revealing the unique perspectives of African American collegians who have studied abroad. Traditionally an emphasis on program success has been placed on the quantity of study abroad participants rather than the quality of African American student support and engagement; the personal reflections through the lens of African American race and identity are often overlooked. A series of culturally responsive, guided interviews were conducted with African American collegians from a variety of institutions across …

Race, Class, And Herman Melville, Joan A. De Santis

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Analyzes two of the short stories in Herman Melville's The Piazza Tales, "Bartleby the Scrivener: a Story of Wall Street" and "Benito Cereno" and argues that these stories are highly critical of the bourgeois class structure of American society that inform Wall Street, as well as the slave trade, in mid-Nineteenth-Century America. Posits that in these works Melville addresses the questions of hierarchical power in the workplace and the effects of racism and slavery in the colonization of America.

Hip-Hop Futurism: Remixing Afrofuturism And The Hermeneutics Of Identity, Chuck Galli

Honors Projects

Examines the phenomenon of futuristic hip-hop works and explores the Afrofuturist, surrealist, and postmodern cultural practices of the African diaspora which informed these works.

Marcia Ann Gillespie: Confronting Racism And Sexism: Towards A More Humane Society (2000), Marcia Gillespie

Rhode Island College Audio Video collection

No abstract provided.

Interrogating Identity, Daniel M. Scott

Faculty Publications

Discusses the structures of identity and the role writing plays in the reconfiguration of the self in Charles Johnson's novel `Middle Passage.' Fundamental assumptions about human and literary identity; Allusion and appropriation of textual authority; Novel's debt to preceding Western writing; Complications of Afro-American experience; Johnson's reconfiguration of writing..

The Tripled Plot And Center Of Sula, Maureen T. Reddy

Faculty Publications

Critics of Sula frequently comment on the pervasive presence of death, the uses of a particular cultural and historical background, the split or doubled protagonist (Sula/Nel), and the attention to chronology in the novel. However, as far as I am aware, no one has presented a reading of Sula that explores the interrelatedness of these elements; yet it is the connections among them that most usefully reveal the novel's overall thematic patterns. Sula can be, and has been, read as, among other things, a fable, a lesbian novel, a black female bildungsroman, a novel of heroic questing, and an historical …

The Proceedings Of The Free African Union Society And The African Benevolent Society: Newport, Rhode Island 1780-1824, William H. Robinson

Faculty Publications

Known among the black community of Newport, Rhode Island for the almost 200 year life of their existence, the manuscripts of the Proceedings of the African Union Society, and the Proceedings of the African Benevolent Society have only recently been "discovered" and used by professional historians concerned with illuminating the colonial American experience, especially the colonial black American experience. Presented to the safekeeping of the Colored Union Congregational Church in 1844, where they remained until, that church dissolving in 1963, these proceedings were then handed over to the Newport Historical Society, where they have been housed ever since.

These manuscripts …

Manuscript F, Carl Russell Gross

Dr. Carl Russell Gross papers

Timeline of African American history in Rhode Island from 1696 to 1970, including introduction and abolition of slavery, establishment and development of African American churches, notable African Americans, and African American firsts in Rhode Island.

Manuscript B, Carl Russell Gross

Dr. Carl Russell Gross papers

Titled "Sketches on Negroes and Events in Rhode Island 1696 - 1970," this unfinished manuscript presents a timeline of African American history in Rhode Island from 1696 to 1819. The timeline includes the introduction of slavery; African American participation in the American Revolution; the abolition of slavery; and the establishment of African American churches.

Manuscript E, Carl Russell Gross

Dr. Carl Russell Gross papers

Timeline of African American history in Rhode Island, from 1652 to 1955, including the introduction of slavery; African American participation in the American Revolution; the abolition of slavery; the establishment and development of African American churches; notable African Americans; and African American firsts in Rhode Island.

Manuscript D, Carl Russell Gross

Dr. Carl Russell Gross papers

This incomplete manuscript presents a timeline of African American history in Rhode Island from 1819-1955, including the establishment and growth of African American churches; African American participation in the American Civil War and the First World War; desegregation and civil rights; and notable African American firsts.

Manuscript A, Carl Russell Gross

Dr. Carl Russell Gross papers

Timeline of the history of African Americans in Rhode Island, beginning with the first slaves in 1696 and ending with the first black officer in the Providence Fire Department in 1971. Notes refer to additional files within the Carl Russell Gross collection.

Manuscript C, Carl Russell Gross

Dr. Carl Russell Gross papers

Titled "Negroes and Events in Rhode Island 1696-1970," this unfinished manuscript presents a timeline of African American history in Rhode Island from 1696 to 1819. This timeline includes the introduction of slavery; African American participation in the American Revolution; the abolition of slavery; and the establishment of African American churches.

A Brief History On The Life Of Matilda Sissieretta (Joynor) Jones "The Black Patti" 1869-1933 (?), Carl Russell Gross

Dr. Carl Russell Gross papers

A short biography written by Dr. Carl Russell Gross on the singer Matilda Sisseretta (Joynor) Jones. This work was part of a larger lifetime work by Dr. Gross, an unfinished manuscript that would be "something of the history of our race in (Rhode Island)."

On this history of this biography, he writes, "a request came from a student at Syracuse University, N. Y. to the Rhode Island Historical Society for information concerning Madame Jones and they referred her to me. Her doctoral dissertation is on the Negro's role in the 19th century concert life, her central figure being Madame Matilda …