{"product_id":"powers-divine-9780761841845","title":"Powers Divine","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTomeiko Ashford Carter offers insight into the writings of a black female preacher in nineteenth-century America and shows how she helped start a revolution of spirit-writing. Spirit-writing offered black, female authors a sanctuary where they could create powerful leading female characters who live by their own brands of Christian theology. In Powers Divine, Carter calls attention to subsequent black female writers whose fiction demonstrates the legacies of life and spirit-writing by combining autobiographical information and steadfast reliance on the spiritual. Carter does not leave out black male writers whom she discovers have created their own versions of divine women since the nineteenth-century. Carter finds selected black male writers especially concern themselves with the imperfections of the divine heroine. Powers Divine provides unique insight into the personal and professional lives of authors, offering an engaging look at the compelling divine characters they create and the innovative spiritual books they write.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePowers Divine provides a much-needed contribution to black literary studies by exploring the trajectory of the 'divine black heroine.' Delving into little-known nineteenth-century spiritual autobiographies—and the oral traditions that sustained them—Carter identifies textual foundations of contemporary black feminist fiction. In acknowledging the peculiar resonance of black women's divine writings for their twentieth-century daughters and sons, Carter puts forth her own \"call and response\": a call to readers to acknowledge and respond themselves to traditions that continue to speak powerfully today in black women's fiction. -- Susan Candace Ward, author of Desire and Disorder: Fever, Fictions, and Feeling in English Georgian Culture (2007)\u003cbr\u003eExploring the literary works of African American women from slavery to the present, Carter weaves together a thoughtful and compelling analysis of the power of the Divine in black women's narrative. Carter's command of literature and appreciation of the subject make Powers Divine a phenomenal read! -- Marla Frederick, author of Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith (2003)\u003cbr\u003eCombining meticulous attention to historical detail with theoretical verve, Powers Divine presents arguments that are supple, innovative, and utterly compelling. Carter introduces us to new voices of black women writers while also enabling us to hear familiar voices in new ways. With her far-ranging and generically diverse focus, she persuasively makes the case for reinterpreting the African American literary canon, particularly the relationship of spiritual autobiography to contemporary spiritual fiction. Powers Divine breaks down traditional understandings of literary and historical periodization quite productively. -- Nancy Bradley Warren, author of Women of God and Arms: Female Spirituality and Political Conflict, 1380-1600 (2005)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1 1 \"Imaginative\" Narrations of Divine Power: Zilpha Elaw, Black Feminist Spiritual Autobiography, and Literary Tradition Chapter 2 2 Bridging Literary Divides: The Auto\/Fictional Spirit-Writings of Harriet Wilson, Frances E. W. Harper, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson Chapter 3 3 Embodiments of Theology: Divinity and Maternal Surrogacy Chapter 4 4 \"Standing in the Gap\": Intercession, Fractured Womanist Identity, and Healing Chapter 5 5 The Spiritual \"Other\": Marginalized Black Feminist Religiosity Chapter 6 6 Sacred Cosmologies: Theology, Womanism, and Globalism Meet the Science-Fiction World Chapter 7 7 A Look Toward Divine Female Characterizations by Black Male Writers","brand":"University Press of America","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51037839982935,"sku":"9780761841845","price":38.7,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780761841845.jpg?v=1750937783","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/powers-divine-9780761841845","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}