Contemporary African American Theater: Afrocentricity in the Works of Larry Neal, Amiri Baraka, and Charles Fuller

by Anadolu-Okur,Nilgun

• ISBN13: 9780815328728
• ISBN10: 0815328729
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-06-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Black Arts Movement was sparked by the Civil Rights movement and the urge to produce and revitalize functional, realistic, and holistic symbols to express African American creativity. When Larry Neal began his quest for a new dramatic form to epitomize African American self-determination he laid the foundation upon which his friends and compatriots-Amiri Baraka and Charles Fuller-would build. Expressing their individual protests through their writings, these artists soon united in their attack against Eurocentrism, which traditionally minimized or neglected the roles played by Africans and African Americans on the world stage. Their writings signaled a radical change in the form and content of African American writing, particularly drama. In this insightful examination of African American cultural history, the author explores the heart of the dramatic imagination of African Americans during the turbulent years of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The analysis of the works of these threeimportant dramatists reveals the roots of an Afrocentric approach to the theater, and introduces a new methodology for exploring Afrocentrism that is particularly suited to classes in African American drama and literature.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(2)
Introduction	xi	(24)
Acknowledgments	xxxv
Chapter 1 The Critical Tradition in Drama	3	(20)
The Black Artist and Black Arts/Black Theater Movements	7	(6)
Nommo: Transformative Power of the Word	13	(10)
Chapter 2 Larry Neal	23	(54)
The Winter of Despair/The Spring of Hope	23	(2)
The Man in the Leather Cap	25	(23)
The Resistant Spirit	48	(4)
Black Writer's Mission	52	(6)
The Glorious Monster in the Bell of the Horn	58	(8)
Towards an Afrocentric Methodology	66	(11)
Chapter 3 Amiri Baraka	77	(50)
Transformation	89	(5)
Amiri Baraka and the African American Theater	94	(6)
A Black Mass	100	(6)
Dutchman	106	(8)
The Slave	114	(13)
Chapter 4 Charles Fuller	127	(46)
Zooman and the Sign	142	(12)
A Soldier's Play	154	(19)
Conclusion	173	(6)
Selected Bibliography	179	(8)
Index	187