Summary
Contents
Subject index
Afrocentricity—the placement of African values and ideals at the center of the discussion surrounding African culture, discourse, and behavior—is an important framework that has emerged over the past decade. In this timely volume, editor Janice D. Hamlet has chosen essays that illuminate various aspects of African American culture, refracted through the lens of Afrocentric thought. In Part I, the basics of Afrocentric ideology and methodology are examined. Part II focuses on Afrocentric approaches to the dynamics of communication. The Afrocentric influence on the black aesthetic is covered in Part III, with an examination of language, literature, oral tradition, movies, and television. Part IV provides a glimpse into the future of Afrocentric visions.
Afrocentricity and the Black Aesthetic
Part III celebrates the Black aesthetic and its Afrocentric influences. Addison Gayle, Jr., in the introduction to his edited volume, The Black Aesthetic (1971, p. xxxii), argues that the Black aesthetic is a means of helping African Americans out of the polluted mainstream of Americanism and offers logical, reasoned arguments as to why African American artists should not desire to meet the standards of White European artists, but, instead, their world should be judged based on their own social, political and economic history. A critical methodology has no relevance to the African American community unless it aids in helping the people become better than they are. The five chapters in Part III offer Afrocentric discussions and ...
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