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"Making a Collection": James Weldon Johnson and the Mission of African American Literature

"Making a Collection": James Weldon Johnson and the Mission of African American Literature 522 Tess Chakkalakal canon as ‘‘essential for the permanent institutionalization of the black literary tradition within departments of English, American Studies, and African American Studies’’ (xxix). This essay is an attempt to illuminate this claim by the editors of the Norton not by analyzing the texts that the editors select for inclusion, but by considering both the impulse to collect various literary texts to form a single entity called ‘‘African American literature’’ and its impact on our understanding of literature as such. I will thus compare the claims of the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature with the structure and process by which the first African American literary anthology was brought out by James Weldon Johnson in 1922. While the differences between these two anthologies are certainly significant, both make claims for the anthology as satisfying a growing interest in African Americans themselves. What interests me here is the relationship between literature and African Americans both anthologies maintain. In their anthology, Gates and McKay are advocating a tradition (and specifically a literary tradition) that should be taught and studied. They see ‘‘broader access’’ to African American literature as a sign that African Americans are full and equal members of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png South Atlantic Quarterly Duke University Press

"Making a Collection": James Weldon Johnson and the Mission of African American Literature

Chakkalakal, Tess
South Atlantic Quarterly , Volume 104 (3) – Jul 1, 2005
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2005 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0038-2876
eISSN
1527-8026
DOI
10.1215/00382876-104-3-521
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

522 Tess Chakkalakal canon as ‘‘essential for the permanent institutionalization of the black literary tradition within departments of English, American Studies, and African American Studies’’ (xxix). This essay is an attempt to illuminate this claim by the editors of the Norton not by analyzing the texts that the editors select for inclusion, but by considering both the impulse to collect various literary texts to form a single entity called ‘‘African American literature’’ and its impact on our understanding of literature as such. I will thus compare the claims of the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature with the structure and process by which the first African American literary anthology was brought out by James Weldon Johnson in 1922. While the differences between these two anthologies are certainly significant, both make claims for the anthology as satisfying a growing interest in African Americans themselves. What interests me here is the relationship between literature and African Americans both anthologies maintain. In their anthology, Gates and McKay are advocating a tradition (and specifically a literary tradition) that should be taught and studied. They see ‘‘broader access’’ to African American literature as a sign that African Americans are full and equal members of

Journal

South Atlantic Quarterly – Duke University Press

Published: Jul 1, 2005

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