The Journey Back [Paperback]

Professor Baker offers the richest analysis we have of black literature in its full cultural context. A superb literary critic, a sophisticated student of culture and society, Baker is himself a very talented writer, deeply engaged in the literary-cultural 'journey' he describes. The result is a major work of interdisciplinary scholarship and humanistic criticism which will remain for years to come an authoritative treatment of the subject.The Journey Backis a landmark not only in the study of black literature but in American studies in general. No one interested in our culture can afford to ignore it. —Sacvan Bercovitch, Columbia University

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Terms for Order: Acculturation, Meaning, and the Early Record of the Journey
2. Autobiographical Acts and the Voice of the Southern Slave
3. Sightings: Black Historical Consciousness and the New Harbors of the Fifties
4. In Our Own Time: The Florescence of Nationalism in the Sixties and Seventies
5. The Black Spokesman as Critic: Reflections on the Black Aesthetic
6. Black Creativity and American Attitudes
7. Toward a Critical Prospect for the Future
Conclusion
Notes
Index