- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: OUP USA (13 Sep 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195332911
- ISBN-13: 978-0195332919
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm
American Lazarus
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"In American Lazarus Joanna Brooks applies a new and highly effective paradigm to the emergence of African American and Native American voices in eighteenth-century British America. As she explores the confluence of evangelical religion and revolutionary ideology that gave rise to such writes as Samson Occom, John Marrant, and Prince Hall, Brooks reinvigorates a long tradition of American Studies scholarship. Well-written and learned, American Lazarus should find a wide audience." --Philip F. Gura, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"IAmerican Lazarus is a stunning resurrection of a buried chapter of American literary history and the redemption of a host of misread, ignored, and undervalued African American and Native American literary artists whose works have long awaited the interpretive powers and methods of Joanna Brooks. This book transforms our reading of American religion, race, history, and literature by reformulating our assumptions about the literary culture o
Product Description
The 1780s and 1790s were a critical era for communities of colour in the new United States of America. Even Thomas Jefferson observed that in the aftermath of the American Revolution, 'the spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust.' This book explores the means by which the very first Black and Indian authors rose up to transform their communities and the course of American literary history. It argues that the origins of modern African-American and American Indian literatures emerged at the revolutionary crossroads of religion and racial formation as early Black and Indian authors reinvented American evangelicalism and created new postslavery communities, new categories of racial identification, and new literary traditions. While shedding fresh light on the pioneering figures of African-American and Native American cultural history--including Samson Occom, Prince Hall, Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and John Marrant--this work also explores a powerful set of little-known Black and Indian sermons, narratives, journals, and hymns. Chronicling the early American communities of color from the separatist Christian Indian settlement in upstate New York to the first African Lodge of Freemasons in Boston, it shows how eighteenth-century Black and Indian writers forever shaped the American experience of race and religion. American Lazarus offers a bold new vision of a foundational moment in American literature. It reveals the depth of early Black and Indian intellectual history and reassesses the political, literary, and cultural powers of religion in America.
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3 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Great Book in Literature and Religion
30 April 2007
Format:Hardcover
American Lazarus is the story of how African American and Native American writers forged new tools to re-create their identities. In spite of slavery and subjugation, men like Samson Occom, John Marrant, Richard Allen, and Prince Hall endeavored to raise their people from civic death. This book is powerful. It is beautifully written; it sheds new light on traditions of resistance in American letters; and it shows that the theme of Lazarus (the biblical story where Jesus raises his friend from the dead) was an overarching conception for peoples of color just as the Exodus story was. Incredible history; amazing literary analysis. American Lazarus is a triumph.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
An incredible story
1 July 2004
Format:Hardcover
My minister mentioned this book in a recent sermon. As a Christian living in the 21st Century, I realize that there is so much that I can take for granted. The trials and tribulations and triumphs that people like Samson Occom and John Marrant went through were inspiring to say the least. I had no idea that one of America's first hymnals was compiled by a Native American, nor did I discover until reading this book how much American Christianity is so entwined in Black and Indian struggles. I learned so much from this book. I'm not a reader of literature, but now I want to find out more about these people. I can say that it's made me a better Christian. I'm so grateful to these American saints. Thank you, Joanna Brooks, for opening my eyes.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Intellectual work and discovery at its best
13 Jun 2004
Format:Hardcover
With AMERICAN LAZARUS, Brooks recovers, or might I say, revives either long-forgotten or oft-misunderstood religious writings by eighteenth-century African Americans and Native Americans. And the story she tells through their works is as relevant in the 21st century as it was during theirs: God takes sides, and God's side is with the poor, the enslaved, the colonized. And these writers, like Brooks, ask: which side are you on? AMERICAN LAZARUS shows us the debt we owe to these innovative ancestors of color--politically, culturally, spiritually. And for that, we are indebted to Brooks as well.
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