African American Review articles from March 1994

African American Review archives from March 1994

The slave trade: view from the middle passage. (poem) (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... I I am Mfu, not a bit romantic, a water spirit, a voice from deep in the Atlantic: Mfu jumped ship, made his escape, to find relief from his grief on the way, long ago, to Brazil or Georgia or Carolina - he doesn't know which; but this...

On watching a caterpillar become a butterfly. (poem) (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... On Watching a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly It's a slow, slow process sitting here on the porch just watching a clumsy male milkweed caterpillar slowly turning itself into a graceful butterfly while hanging from the...

On trying to imagine the kiwi pregnant. (poem) (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... On Trying to imagine the Kiwi Pregnant Having never been to New Zealand's green forest, or North Island's Waitangi or the Forest of Northland, I can only imagine, to see, the little earthworm-eater in her frenzy of lust in her...

View from a rock at dusk. (poem) (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... The tiny beady-eyed rat bird with tiny teeth like a shark's flies against the blue night sky of Carlsbad Cavern its little brown body some wiggly thing trapped (We a tavern drunk's best dream) in a bed of loose skin desperately...

I was looking for the University. (poem) (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... While driving north, lost through Wyoming along a river on a sun-dappled day alongside looming blue mountains dotted with pine then through a thousand-acre spread below a retirement village way at the top past highway - boys vanishing...

Chicago heat. (short story) (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... Hello? Mother? It's me, Floyce. I just got back from the courthouse, me and Russell. You won't believe it. Something terrible has happened. They kept Harley. And it looks like my husband is dead. The police was just here and they took him out...

Sketch. (short story) (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... Morning on the terrace. Can hear Jean Baptiste Quenin crooning "Veilleur de toutes les nuits." Radio in the kitchen, Middle of February". New Grumbacher French Portable easel out here on the terrace. A sketch-pad against my hip. A particular...

Necessary distance: afterthoughts on becoming a writer. (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... People have a tendency to ask a writer, Why did you become a writer? How did you become a writer? Every writer hears such questions over and over. You ever hear anybody ask a butcher a question like that? So, what's so special about being a...

Art work by Clarence Major. (Clarence Major Issue) (Illustration)
March 22, 1994... [NO TEXT CAPTURED]

Clarence Major's innovative fiction. (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... "In a novel,"Clarence Major told interviewer John O'Brien "the only thing you really have is words. You begin with words, and you end with words. The content exists in our minds. I don't firm it has to be a reflection of anything"(130). With...

The double vision of Clarence Major, painter and writer. (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... If double consciousness is a factor in the fiction of African Americans, then it makes sense that it would be all the more so in their practice of the visual arts. While the writing of African Americans is "difficult, working in English, a...

"I was a weird example of art": 'My Amputations' as Cubist confession. (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... If you were to cut away the frame from Clarence Major's My Amputations - lopping off the memoirs (whether real or imagined), the slapstick crime story, the fantasies borrowed from pom movies and spy novels - you would be left with the story of...

Clarence Major's homecoming voice in 'Such Was the Season.' (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... "Unlike his previous fiction, which was unstintingly experimental Such Was the Season is an old-fashioned, straight-ahead narrative crammed with action, a dramatic storyline and meaty characterization," writes novelist Al Young (19). This is...

Clarence Major's 'All-Night Visitors': Calabanic discourse and black male expression. (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... Readers who have followed Clarence Major's career and know his work RUM that as his career has developed his work has become more experimental and increasingly foregrounds the great limitations of fictive portrayal and expression which are the...

Against commodification: Zuni culture in Clarence Major's Native American texts. (Clarence Major Issue)
March 22, 1994... Not too far gone are the days when any county museum served the naively colonial role of representing Native American cultures to all who ventured in. The centerpieces of such exhibits were the dioramas, all of which, no matter the tribe (if,...

"I follow my eyes": an interview with Clarence Major. (Clarence Major Issue) (Interview)
March 22, 1994... It was during the period of turmoil and transformation of the 1960s that Clarence Major first achieved literary recognition, initially as an editor, poet, and anthologist, and then - following the controversial publication in 1969 of his...

A checklist of books by Clarence Major. (Clarence Major Issue) (Bibliography)
March 22, 1994... The checklist that follows lists the editions of Major's published book-length works. A more detailed listing of Major's writing appears in Joe Weixlmann and Clarence Major's "Toward a Primary Bibliography of Clarence Major," Black American...

Liberating Voices: Oral Tradition in African American Literature.
March 22, 1994... Gayl Jones is one of the most forceful voices in contemporary African American literature, but until recently her major works were out of print. Her violent use of language and sexual/scatological images have challenged notions of what women...

White Rat.
March 22, 1994... Gayl Jones is one of the most forceful voices in contemporary African American literature, but until recently her major works were out of print. Her violent use of language and sexual/scatological images have challenged notions of what women...

Praisesong of Survival: Lectures and Essays, 1957-1989.
March 22, 1994... In his moving preface to Praisesong of Survival: Lectures and Essay, 1957-1989, Dolan Hubbard eloquently summarizes Richard K. Barksdale's career in literary scholarship and teaching: "With unaffected grace, he imparted knowledge" (ix). This...

From Trickster to Badman: The Black Folk Hero in Slavery and Freedom.
March 22, 1994... As one might deduce from its title, From Trickster to Badman: The Black Folk Hero in Slavery and Freedom is of great interest for folklore scholars and history. It is also important reading for those who teach ethnic literature. Oral takes from...

Telling Tales: The Pedagogy and the Promise of African American Literature for Youth.
March 22, 1994... To identify African American literature for youth one has had to pry endlessly through literary reference works and other resources to locate pertinent facts. However, through the inspiration and interest of Dianne Johnson, there is now an...