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Frances E. W. Harper (1825–1911)

Forfatter af Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted

15+ Works 462 Members 3 Reviews

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Popular with both African American and white audiences, Frances Ellen Harper's poetry, novels, short stories, and lectures reflected her antislavery and antiracist attitudes, going beyond these themes to address broader social issues, such as women's suffrage and temperance. Born to a free family vis mere in Baltimore, Harper was encouraged to read and write by her employer, the wife of a bookseller. She moved to the free state of Ohio in 1850, where she taught, spoke for the Anti-Slavery Society of Maine, and published her popular Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854). Her novel, Iola Leroy (1892), depicts a slave family's effort to reunite after emancipation. It was the first work to chronicle the Reconstruction South from an African American point of view. Although criticized by some as overly sentimental and unrealistic, the novel must be seen in context as an appeal for readers' sympathy and understanding. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
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Værker af Frances E. W. Harper

Associated Works

The Black Poets (1983) — Bidragyder — 353 eksemplarer
Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (1972) — Bidragyder — 275 eksemplarer
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1 (1990) — Bidragyder, nogle udgaver255 eksemplarer
African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927 (1997) — Bidragyder — 249 eksemplarer
Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought (1995) — Bidragyder — 233 eksemplarer
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (2020) — Bidragyder — 170 eksemplarer
The Vintage Book of African American Poetry (2000) — Bidragyder — 142 eksemplarer
Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women 1860-1960 (1987) — Bidragyder — 102 eksemplarer
Three Classic African-American Novels (1990) — Bidragyder — 102 eksemplarer
Poets of the Civil War (2005) — Bidragyder — 93 eksemplarer
Honey, Hush! An Anthology of African American Women's Humor (1657) — Bidragyder — 76 eksemplarer
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Concise Edition (2003) — Bidragyder — 68 eksemplarer
The Portable Nineteenth-Century African American Women Writers (2017) — Bidragyder — 65 eksemplarer
Trouble the Water: 250 Years of African American Poetry (1997) — Bidragyder — 56 eksemplarer
The Vintage Book of American Women Writers (2011) — Bidragyder — 56 eksemplarer
Scribbling Women: Short Stories by 19th-Century American Women (1997) — Bidragyder — 49 eksemplarer
Recognize!: An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life (2021) — Bidragyder — 48 eksemplarer
Best Loved Short Stories of Nineteenth Century America (2003) — Bidragyder — 39 eksemplarer
Toni Morrison's Beloved : A Casebook (1999) — Bidragyder — 36 eksemplarer
Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery and Abolition (2021) — Bidragyder — 32 eksemplarer
Graphic Classics: African-American Classics (2011) — Bidragyder — 31 eksemplarer

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This novel spans about 30 years from the 1840/50s to the Reconstruction period (it flashes back and forward in time) and mostly follows people connected to a small Black and mixed race extended family. Unfortunately the title character has very little presence until the second half, but after that her personality really starts to develop. The novel covers both the dispersal of Black families during the period of enslavement, as well as the difficult process of finding your scattered loved ones after emancipation (made miraculously easy in this novel in a quite Dickensian way). There is a love story shoehorned in near the end.

This piece of writing is great--five stars--as a social study of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. It covers all kinds of territory, from questions of passing and privilege, education, colorism, political advocacy, political corruption, prejudice and racially-motivated extrajudicial violence, and very presciently describes an understanding of race as socially constructed and socialized. However, as a novel it's kind of a mess, and I cannot say the plot really drove me to keep reading. I wish its execution as fiction were as strong as the social and political questions it explores. Considered as one of the first major literary works by a nineteenth-century Black woman writer, it's still very well worth reading in spite of my quibbles!
… (mere)
½
 
Markeret
sansmerci | 2 andre anmeldelser | Jun 18, 2022 |

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Statistikker

Værker
15
Also by
30
Medlemmer
462
Popularitet
#53,212
Vurdering
3.8
Anmeldelser
3
ISBN
75
Sprog
1

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