Analyzing the poets Melvin B. Tolson, Langston Hughes, and Amiri Baraka, this study charts the Afro-Modernist epic. Within the context of Classical epic traditions, early 20th-century American modernist long poems, and the griot traditions of West Africa, Schultz reveals diasporic consciousness in the representation of African American identities.

Autorentext
Kathy Lou Schultz is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Memphis, USA where she directs the Honors Program.

Inhalt
1: Modern, Modernist, Afro-Modernist: Melvin B. Tolson in the 1930s and 40s 2: A Poem for the Futurafrique: Tolson's Libretto for the Republic of Liberia 3: 'In the Modern Vein': Tolson's Harlem Gallery 4: Bound By LawLangston Hughes in/and the 1950s 5: Toward An Afro-Modernist Future: Langston's Hughes's ASK YOUR MAMA: 12 MOODS FOR JAZZ 6: Amiri Baraka's Wise Why's Y's: Lineages of the Afro-Modernist Epic