0230600220 (hbk)

9780230600225 (hbk)

Introduction: writing the classical Black: the poetic and political function of African American women's classical revision

Historical overview of ancient and contemporary representation of classical mythology

Classical discourse as political agency: African American revisionist mythmaking by Phillis Wheatley, Henrietta Cordelia Ray, and Pauline Hopkins

Gwendolyn Brooks' racialization of the Persephone and Demeter myth in "the Anniad" and "in The Mecca"

The destruction and reconstruction of classical and cultural myth in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Beloved and The Bluest Eye

A universal approach to classical mythology: Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth and Mother Love.

American literature > African American authors > Classical influences.

American literature > Women authors > History and criticism.