Turning on inspired interpretations of Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Ntozake Shange, Workings of the Spirit weighs current critical approaches to black women's writing against Baker's own explanation of the founding, theoretical state of Afro-American intellectual history. "Brilliant, and tenderly riveted to gratitude as an indispensable facet of analysis, Houston Baker arrives, yet again, bearing the loveliest flowers of his devotion and delight: thank God he's here!"—June Jordan

Workings of the Spirit: The Poetics of Afro-American Women's Writing (Black Literature and Culture)

Literature & Fiction

Houston A. Baker Jr.

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

Baker perceives the Harlem Renaissance as a crucial moment in a movement, predating the 1920's, when Afro-Americans embraced the task of self-determination and in so doing gave forth a distinctive form of expression that still echoes in a broad spectrum of 20th-century Afro-American arts.

Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance

Relating the blues to American social and literary history and to Afro-American expressive culture, Houston A. Baker, Jr., offers the basis for a broader study of American culture at its "vernacular" level. He shows how the "blues voice" and its economic undertones are both central to the American narrative and characteristic of the Afro-American way of telling it.

Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Houston A. Baker Jr.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Houston A. Baker Jr.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Houston A. Baker Jr.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Workings of the Spirit: The Poetics of Afro-American Women's Writing (Black Literature and Culture)

Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance

Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory