Works Cited
Teachers College of Columbia University. "Been Here So Long": American Slave
Narratives." New Deal Network. http://newdeal.feri.org/asn/asn00.htm (accessed
August 10, 2012). An excellent source of slave narratives.
Baldwin, James. Collected essays. New York: Library of America, 1998.
Library of Congress. "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938." American Memory from the Library of Congress - Home Page. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html (accessed August 10, 2012). An excellent source of slave narratives.
Campbell, Joseph, and Bill D. Moyers. The power of myth. New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible man. 2nd Vintage International ed. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Even if only part of this work can be worked into the curriculum, it's worth it.
Eschen, Penny M. Race against empire: Black Americans and anticolonialism. 1937-1957. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.
Fort, Bruce. "American Slave Narratives." American Studies The University of Virginia. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html (accessed August 10, 2012). An excellent source of slave narratives.
Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred A. Moss. From slavery to freedom: a history of African Americans. 8th ed. New York: A.A Knopf, 2000. Helpful source of background material for the teacher.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The signifying monkey: a theory of African American literary criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1989. The early chapters in this book provide information about the signifying monkey, a trickster character from African traditional folklore. Gates develops a theory of African American literature based on the complex ways black authors employ the English language.
Harper, Michael S., and Anthony Walton. The Vintage book of African American poetry. New York: Vintage Books, 2000. A well-selected collection of African American poetry.
Harris, Eddy L. Native stranger: a Black American's journey into the heart of Africa. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Harris traverses nearly the entire continent; his observations have honesty and clarity. Good background material.
Hartman, Saidiya V. Lose your mother: a journey along the Atlantic slave route. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Hartman spends a year in Ghana; the reader can experience her victories and disappointments. Nothing is ever what you expect it to be.
Lemann, Nicholas. The promised land: the great Black migration and how it changed America. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1991. Very useful background material, particularly the early chapters.
Morrison, Toni. A mercy. New York: Vintage - Random House, 2008. A layered and nuanced novel with a series of narrators. Challenging for high school students to read, but worth the effort. It offers a glimpse of life in the New World before the institutionalization of slavery.
——.Song of Solomon. New York: Knopf, 1977. A novel that can claim to be obsessed with the idea of home. Very accessible to students.
——. Beloved: a novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. This novel presents the tragic dilemma of home. Not an easy read for high-school students because of its complexity of language, not its content.
Myers, Molly. Interview by author. Personal interview. New Haven, CT, July 12, 2012. Sometimes YNI colleagues say the most useful things!
Painter, Nell Irvin. Exodusters: Black migration to Kansas after Reconstruction. New York: Knopf, 1977. Great reading in preparation to teaching Flyin' West.
Phillips, Caryl. Crossing the river. New York: Knopf , 1994.
Prince, Valerie Sweeney. Burnin' down the house: home in African American literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. This book contains essays on several important African American literary works. Teachers will find it useful for teaching preparation or as ancillary readings for their students.
Rampersad, Arnold, and Hilary Herbold. The Oxford anthology of African-American poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Stack, Carol B. Call to home: African Americans reclaim the rural South. New York: BasicBooks, 1996. A very engaging work that presents portraits of African Americans who have migrated to other states and then returned home. The author is an anthropologist who writes with insight, empathy, and passion.
Stepto, Robert B. A home elsewhere: reading African American classics in the age of Obama. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2010. Although Stepto's use of the word "home" in the title is figurative, several of the essays could be used as teaching preparation or as ancillary readings for students.
Wilson, August. Gem of the ocean. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2006. This play is remarkable for its array of original characters, its distinctive use of language, and its almost magical sequence of events. Chronologically, it comes first in Wilson's century cycle. Aunt Esther's kitchen is where everything happens.
Woodson, Carter Godwin. A century of Negro migration. New York: Russell & Russell, 1969. This book provides helpful background information for teachers preparing to address black migration, whether from a literary or historical point of view.
Woodtor, Dee. Finding a place called home: a guide to African-American genealogy and historical identity. New York: Random House, 1999. An unlikely place to find clear, concise historical information, but there it is. Woodtor has written a how-to manual for tracing genealogical roots that includes information about history and context that are very accessible for both teachers and students.
Pennsylvania State Standards for Reading Writing, Speaking and Listening
1.1. Reading Independently
1.1.12.A: Apply appropriate strategies to construct meaning through interpretation and to analyze and evaluate author's use of techniques and elements of fiction and non-fiction for rhetorical and aesthetic purposes.
1.2: Reading, Analyzing, and Interpreting Text
1.2.12.B: Distinguish among facts and opinions, evidence, and inference across a
variety of texts by using complete and accurate information, coherent arguments and
points of view.
1.2.12.D: Evaluate textual evidence to make subtle inferences and draw complex conclusions based on and related to an author's implicit and explicit assumptions and beliefs about a subject.
1.3: Reading, Analyzing, and Interpreting Literature - Fiction and Non-Fiction
1.3.12.A: Interpret significant works from various forms of literature to make deeper and subtler interpretations of the meaning of text. Analyze the way in which a work of literature is related to the themes and issues of its historical period.
1.3.12.C: Analyze the effectiveness of literary elements used by authors in various genres.
1.4: Types of Writing
1.4.12.B: Write complex informational pieces (e.g. research papers, literary analytical essays, evaluations)
1.5: Quality of Writing
1.5.12.A: Write with a clear focus, identifying topic, task, and audience.
1.6: Speaking and Listening
1.6.12.A: Listen critically and respond to others in small and large group situations.
1.7: Characteristics and Functions of the English Language
1.7.12.A: Analyze the role and place of standard American English in speech, writing, and literature. Evaluate as a reader how an author's choice of words advances the theme or purpose of a work. Choose words appropriately, when writing, to advance the theme or purpose of a work.
1.8: Research
1.8.12.B: Conduct inquiry and research on self-selected or assigned topics, issues, or
problems using a wide variety of appropriate media sources and strategies.
1.8.12.C: Analyze, synthesize, and integrate data, creating a reasoned product that
supports and appropriately illustrates inference and conclusions drawn from research.
1.9: Information, Communication, and Technology Literacy
1.9.12.A: Use media and technology resources for research, information, analysis,
problem solving, and decision making in content learning. Identify complexities and
inconsistencies in the information and the different perspectives found in each
medium.
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