The figure of the violent man in the African American imagination has a
long history. He can be found in 19th-century bad man ballads like
"Stagolee" and "John Hardy," as well as in the black convict
recitations that influenced "gangsta" rap. "Born in a Mighty Bad
Land" connects this figure with similar characters in African American fiction.
Many writers -- McKay and Hurston in the Harlem Renaissance; Wright, Baldwin, and
Ellison in the '40s and '50s; Himes in the '50s and '60s -- saw the "bad
nigger" as an archetypal figure in the black imagination and psyche.
"Blaxploitation" novels in the '70s made him a virtually mythical
character. More recently, Mosley, Wideman, and Morrison have presented him as ghetto
philosopher and cultural adventurer. Behind the folklore and fiction, many theories
have been proposed to explain the source of the bad man's intra-racial violence.
Jerry H. Bryant explores all of these elements in a wide-ranging and illuminating
look at one of the most misunderstood figures in African American culture.
The figure of the violent man in the African American imagination has a
long history. He can be found in 19th-century bad man ballads like
"Stagolee" and "John Hardy," as well as in the black convict
recitations that influenced "gangsta" rap. "Born in a Mighty Bad
Land" connects this figure with similar characters in African American fiction.
Many writers -- McKay and Hurston in the Harlem Renaissance; Wright, Baldwin, and
Ellison in the '40s and '50s; Himes in the '50s and '60s -- saw the "bad
nigger" as an archetypal figure in the black imagination and psyche.
"Blaxploitation" novels in the '70s made him a virtually mythical
character. More recently, Mosley, Wideman, and Morrison have presented him as ghetto
philosopher and cultural adventurer. Behind the folklore and fiction, many theories
have been proposed to explain the source of the bad man's intra-racial violence.
Jerry H. Bryant explores all of these elements in a wide-ranging and illuminating
look at one of the most misunderstood figures in African American culture.
"Born in a Mighty Bad Land": The Violent Man in African American Folklore and Fiction
256"Born in a Mighty Bad Land": The Violent Man in African American Folklore and Fiction
256Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780253109897 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Indiana University Press |
Publication date: | 04/03/2003 |
Series: | Blacks in the Diaspora |
Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 256 |
Sales rank: | 734,486 |
File size: | 486 KB |