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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2022

By
Eve Dunbar  and
Ayesha K. Hardison
Edited by
Eve Dunbar  and
Ayesha K. Hardison
Eve Dunbar
Affiliation:
Vassar College, New York
Ayesha K. Hardison
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Summary

This introduction outlines the parameters of the 1930s as the decade that shapes the African American literature tradition. It considers the volumeʼs chapters and their willingness to linger in the economic, social, and political uncertainty – the transitions – that mark this oft-overlooked decade. Bound not simply by a willingness to grapple with cultural works produced during national and international economic, political, and social upheaval, this introduction argues for the decadeʼs centrality to the later twentieth-century literary trends in the form of literary concerns and aesthetic innovations.

Keywords

DepressionAfrican American literatureinnovationprecarity
Type
Chapter
Information
African American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 , pp. 1 - 30
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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