Category Archives: Sekora, John
Sojourner and Frederick Part 1
Nell Irvin Painter discusses her new book, Sojourner Truth — a Life, a Symbol. John Sekora discusses his new book, Frederick Douglass. [unpublished?] 853 – Sojourner and Frederick Part 1
Afro-American History, Part 3 of 3: (1) Commentary on William Wells Brown; (2) Haiti
John Sekora outlines the life and work of the first black American man of letters, William Wells Brown, the nineteenth-century novelist, historian, physician, and journalist. Sekora’s comments begin and conclude this episode of Soundings and continue the overview he began in the program … Continue reading
Afro-American History, Part 2 of 3: (1) Ethiopia; (2) Commentary on William Wells Brown
By nearly all accounts–political, social, and moral–Ethiopia in the mid-1980s was one of the crisis points in contemporary global relations. According to Harold Marcus, the answers to many Ethiopian issues, including politics and subsistence, are as varied as Ethiopia’s cultural, linguistic, … Continue reading
America’s Literature of Lighting Out
At the end of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Huck remarks that he’s lighting out for the territory, a comment that underscores his rebellion against conventionality and social oppression. But what is Huck lighting out for? What specifically is he rebelling … Continue reading
Afro-American Culture, Literature, and Social Order, Part 4 of 6
John Sekora and Darwin Turner examine the content and structure of African-American slave narratives of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and explain why these narratives merit scholarly and popular attention. They speak about the distribution of slave narratives, the composition … Continue reading
Afro-American Culture, Literature, and Social Order, Part 2 of 6; Commentary on The Black Huddle
Houston Baker, Blyden Jackson, James Olney, and John Sekora discuss the major themes and aesthetic concerns that unify and divide black writers, and the effects of the emergence of African-American studies on both the academy and society as a whole. … Continue reading
Afro-American Culture, Literature, and Social Order, Part 1 of 6
Houston Baker, Blyden Jackson, James Olney, and John Sekora examine the status of African-American writing and literature in the mid-1980s and discuss changes in awareness of black writing to academic and popular audiences. They note increasing interest in and knowledge of … Continue reading
(1) Søren Kierkegaard; (2) Commentary on Afro-American Slave Narratives
In the cultural and intellectual crosscurrents that flow between Europe and the Americas, the name Søren Kierkegaard is prominent. Mark Taylor discusses Kierkegaard’s interpretation and criticism of nineteenth-century philosophy and religious thought, particularly of Christianity in the form of the Danish … Continue reading