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English Literature: African American Literature

A guide for academic English Literature and related literatures.

African & African American Studies

Featured Writers

  • Phillis Wheatley
  • Olaudah Equiano
  • Frederick Douglas
  • Sojourner Truth
  • Nat Turner
  • William Wells Brown
  • Frances E.W. Harper, in full Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, née Frances Ella Watkins
  • Paul Laurence Dunbar
  • Booker T. Washington
  • W.E.B. Du Bois, in full William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
  • James Weldon Johnson
  • Countee Cullen
  • Claude McKay
  • Langston Hughes
  • Zora Neal Hurston
  • James Baldwin
  • Richard Wright
  • Ralpha Ellison
  • Gwendolyn Brooks
  • Lorraine Hansberry
  • James Alan McPherson
  • Nikki Giovanni
  • Amiri Baraka
  • Toni Morrison
  • Alice Walker
  • Octavia Butler
  • August Wilson
  • Maya Angelou
  • Alex Haley
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Roxane Gay 
  • Colson Whitehead 
  • James McBride
  • Edwidge Danticat
  • Percival Everett
  • Jesmyn Ward 
  • N.K. Jemisin
  • Tayari Jones

African American Literature

African American literature, body of literature written by Americans of African descent. Beginning in the pre-Revolutionary War period, African American writers have engaged in a creative, if often contentious, dialogue with American letters. The result is a literature rich in expressive subtlety and social insight, offering illuminating assessments of American identities and history. Although since 1970 African American writers, led by Toni Morrison, have earned widespread critical acclaim, this literature has been recognized internationally as well as nationally since its inception in the late 18th century.

(Read W.E.B. Du Bois’s Britannica essay on African American literature.)

Works Cited

"African American literature." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 14 Nov. 2024. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/African-American-literature/343805. Accessed 7 Jan. 2025.

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