Description
Book SynopsisBlack Atlas presents definitive new approaches to black geography, showing how the rethinking of place and scale can galvanize the study of black literature.
Trade Review"...an illuminating study of place and place-making." -- James S. Finley * Transfers *
"Simply put:
Black Atlas flows. It is not narratively or conceptually simplistic—far from it ... Madera conducts readers through fluid valences of locale, terrain at once domestic, international, human, and economic." -- Regis M. Fox * Studies in the Novel *
"
Black Atlas provides a series of inspiring new approaches to earlier African American literature while demonstrating the diverse interpretive possibilities available through a geographically attuned literary criticism." -- Martha Schoolman * Journal of American History *
"Making a compelling case for geography
as flow (as well as geography
and flow) in this examination of African American contributions to literature, Madera provides new insights into the complexities of 'place' that apply to any consideration of the relation between humans and their environments. Highly recommended." -- S. Petersheim * Choice *
"Madera’s book illuminates numerous fascinating literary histories that would on their own make
Black Atlas a treasure. But she does far more, which is to incisively theorize the relationship between the spatial imagination and literature. Her introduction is a stunning primer on key debates about geography that cuts across the fields of philosophy, literature, and cultural studies; it is essential reading for any literary scholar interested in place and space." -- Mary Caton Lingold * American Literature *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
Introduction. On Meaningful Worlds 1
1. National Geographic: The Writtings of William Wells Brown 24
2. Indigenes of Territory: Martin Delany and James Beckwourth 69
3. This House of Gathering: Axis Americanus 110
4. Civic Geographies and Intentional Communities 151
5. Creole Heteroglossia: Counter-Regionalism and the New Orleans Short Fiction of Alice Dunbar-Nelson 190
Epilogue. Post Scale: Place as Emergence 211
Notes 219
Bibliography 261
Index 285
