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Article: African American literature as spiritual witness: the poetic example of Margaret Alexander Walker.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- Christianity and Literature
- Article date:
- January 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Conference on Christianity and Literature. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Birthed during the watery baptism of the Middle Passage between Africa and the New World, African American literature is the product of hybrid cultures, hybrid worlds, and hybrid religions. The experiences and memories of traditional African religions, along with a brutal introduction to Western Christianity, created the cauldron in which African American literature was born. From the poetry of Ann Plato and Phillis Wheatley, to the novels of Toni Morrison and John Edgar Wideman, African American literature has been "haunted" by its religious birth-pangs, which produced both acceptance and contestation of its African and Christian origins.
Using the poetry of ...