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Excavating Exodus : biblical typology and racial solidarity in African American literature
- Author / Creator
- Available as
- Online
- Summary
-
'Excavating Exodus' analyzes adaptations of Exodus in novels, newspapers, and speeches from the antebellum period to the Civil Rights era. Although Exodus has perennially served to mobilize resista...
'Excavating Exodus' analyzes adaptations of Exodus in novels, newspapers, and speeches from the antebellum period to the Civil Rights era. Although Exodus has perennially served to mobilize resistance to oppression, black writers have radically reinterpreted its meaning over the past two centuries. Changing interpretations of Moses' story reflect evolving conceptions of racial identity, religious authority, gender norms, political activism, and literary form. Black writers transformed Moses from a paragon of race loyalty into an avatar of authoritarianism. 'Excavating Exodus' identifies a rhetorical tradition initiated by David Walker and carried on by Martin Delany and Frances Harper that treats Moses' loyalty to his fellow Hebrews as his defining characteristic.
Details
- Creator
- by J. Laurence Cohen
- Format
- Books
- Language
- English
- Publication
-
- First edition
- Clemson, SC : Clemson University Press, 2021
- Physical Details
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- 1 online resource (226 pages)
- ISBNs
- 180085224X, 194997992X, 9781949979923, 1949979911, 9781949979916, 9781800852242
- OCLC
- on1228188735
- This edition also issued in print: 2021.
- Published in association with Liverpool University Press.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Introduction: Moses in African American religious culture -- Mosaic subjectivity in David Walker and Frances Harper -- Typological plasticity in Martin Delany, Herman Melville, and Harriet Beecher Stowe -- Moses vs. the masses : Alain Locke, Aesthetic Uplift, and Zora Neale Hurston -- The end of Exodus? : the dissolution of Mosaic leadership in Ralph Ellison and William Melvin Kelley -- Ralph Ellison and the dangers of the Moses complex -- The end of Exodus? : the dissolution of Mosaic leadership in William Melvin Kelley -- Conclusion: Moses eternal
Subjects
- American literature -- African American authors -- History and criticism.
- Typology (Theology) in literature.
- Exodus, The, in literature.
- Exodus, The -- Typology.
- African Americans -- Race identity.
- African Americans -- Intellectual life -- 19th century.
- African Americans -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.
- American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
- American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
- Moses (Biblical leader) -- In literature.