"Who Set You Flowin'?" : The African-American Migration Narrative / Edition 1

by Farah Jasmine Griffin

Overview

Twentieth-century America has witnessed the most widespread and sustained movement of African-Americans from the South to urban centers in the North. Griffin looks at this migration across a wide range of genres--the literary texts of Richard Wright and Dorothy West, the paintings of Jacob Lawrence, and the music of Billie Holiday and Arrested Development, as well as photography and correspondence. She identifies the Migration Narrative as a major theme in African-American cultural production, and argues that a dominant portrayal of migration is produced by its historical and political moment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195088977
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	09/26/1996
Series:	Race and American Culture Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 6.13(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Farah Jasmine Griffin is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives and writes in Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	3
1.	"Boll Weevil in the Cotton/Devil in the White Man": Reasons for Leaving the South	13
2.	The South in the City: The Initial Confrontation with the Urban Landscape	48
3.	Safe Spaces and Other Places: Navigating the Urban Landscape	100
4.	To Where from Here? The Final Vision of the Migration Narrative	142
5.	New Directions for the Migration Narrative: Thoughts on Jazz	184
	Notes	199
	Bibliography	219
	Index	227

Editorial Reviews

"[This book]...will will attract a wide readership inside and outside the Academy."—Booklist

"Moving brilliantly across a vast range of textual spaces and political geographies...[this book] is in every way an exemplary work of U.S. cultural studies."—Eric Lott, University of Virginia

"A bold and brilliant book...that breathes new life into such old pardigms as 'the Great Migration,' 'the rural folk,' and 'the urban masses.' Informative, fascinating, and finely crafted. A pleasure to read."—Ann duCille, Wesleyan University

From the Publisher

...it is a splendid achievement. -- African American Review

Charles Scruggs