African American Literature in Transition, 1920–1930: Volume 9

This book analyses historical, literary, and cultural shifts in African American literature from the 1920s-1930s.

This book looks beyond the familiar story of the Harlem Renaissance or New Negro Movement. Discussing the ephemeral qualities of periodicals, clothes, and décor alongside more concrete historical and literary analyses, the volume investigates concepts, events, and figures that have been obscured by the customary narratives of the era.African American Literature in Transition, 1920-1930 presents original essays that map ideological, historical, and cultural shifts in the 1920s. Complicating the familiar reading of the 1920s as a decade that began with a spectacular boom and ended with disillusionment and bust, the collection explores the range and diversity of Black cultural production. Emphasizing a generative contrast between the ephemeral qualities of periodicals, clothes, and décor and the relative fixity of canonical texts, this volume captures in its dynamics a cultural movement that was fluid and expansive. Chapters by leading scholars are grouped into four sections: 'Habitus, Sound, Fashion'; 'Spaces: Chronicles of Harlem and Beyond'; 'Uplift Renewed: Religion, Protest, and Education,' and 'Serial Reading: Magazines and Periodical Culture.'