Book contents
- A History of African American Autobiography
- A History of African American Autobiography
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- A Chronology of African American Life Writing
- Contributors
- Chapter 1 Crafting a Credible Black Self in African American Life Writing
- Part I Origins and Histories
- Chapter 2 Black Life Writing and Print Culture before 1800
- Chapter 3 Reading the Edited “I” in the Early Black Atlantic
- Chapter 4 Caste and Class in the Antebellum Slave Narrative
- Chapter 5 Nineteenth-Century Autobiographical Writings by Freeborn African Americans
- Chapter 6 African American Life Writing, 1865–1900
- Chapter 7 Black Life Writing in Print Cultures at the Turn into the Twentieth Century
- Chapter 8 New Negro Autobiographies
- Chapter 9 Transnational and Postcolonial Afro-Caribbean Life Writing
- Chapter 10 Writing Race and Remembrance in the Civil Rights Movement Years
- Chapter 11 The Biomedicalization of Black Life Narratives
- Part II Individuals and Communities
- Index
Chapter 7 - Black Life Writing in Print Cultures at the Turn into the Twentieth Century
from Part I - Origins and Histories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2021
- A History of African American Autobiography
- A History of African American Autobiography
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- A Chronology of African American Life Writing
- Contributors
- Chapter 1 Crafting a Credible Black Self in African American Life Writing
- Part I Origins and Histories
- Chapter 2 Black Life Writing and Print Culture before 1800
- Chapter 3 Reading the Edited “I” in the Early Black Atlantic
- Chapter 4 Caste and Class in the Antebellum Slave Narrative
- Chapter 5 Nineteenth-Century Autobiographical Writings by Freeborn African Americans
- Chapter 6 African American Life Writing, 1865–1900
- Chapter 7 Black Life Writing in Print Cultures at the Turn into the Twentieth Century
- Chapter 8 New Negro Autobiographies
- Chapter 9 Transnational and Postcolonial Afro-Caribbean Life Writing
- Chapter 10 Writing Race and Remembrance in the Civil Rights Movement Years
- Chapter 11 The Biomedicalization of Black Life Narratives
- Part II Individuals and Communities
- Index
Summary
The first decade of the twentieth century introduced new voices into African American autobiography. The memoirs published as monographs enabled no assumptions about scope or content, or about literary aspirations or political agendas. Readers and publishers alike were introduced to a broad array of life writings prompted by many impulses. Booker T. Washington published two different works in 1901. An Autobiography: The Story of My Life and Work ran 455 pages and included 59 black and white images. Up from Slavery, Washington's shorter slave narrative, ran only 330 pages. Inspiring accounts of African American community engagement and collective aspirations, significantly more modest than Washington’s, were published that same year.The early twentieth century turn to the collective biography was a powerful rejection of self-made man mythologies long shaping white American autobiographical conventions. Life writing for and about the masses became a priority for magazine editor Pauline Hopkins and, by extension, for the Colored American Magazine. As her career revealed, Hopkins was dedicated to producing writing — including autobiography — that recuperated families and communities.
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- Information
- A History of African American Autobiography , pp. 101 - 119Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021