Descriptive rather than evaluative, this article attempts to examine the genealogy of African American literature from its inception to the present. Known best for her Christian verses reflecting orthodox piety, Phyllis Wheatley called attention to contradictory attitudes that white Americans had revealed towards African Americans, Much of angry voices prevalent throughout African American literature is indebted in a great measure to her poetry. Slave narratives, as well as slave autobiographies, were second major literary genres through which African American writers expressed their predicament in white American society. The first major, self-conscious literary movement of African American writers, however. Harlem Renaissance was a pivotal event in the development of African American literature. It was the first intellectual and artistic movement that brought African America to the attention of the entire nation. In 1960s. Black Arts Movement in general and Black Aesthetic in particular expressed responses of African American writers to the social and political pressures created by new liberalism. In addition. African American literature has been not only an integral part of American literature but also has contributed much to the growth of such ethnic American literature as Native American literature. Asian American literature. Hispanic American literature. and so on.
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