Word: afros
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...speech was far from a purely academic one. Gates, who is currently editing a Norton Anthology of Afro-American Literature, cautioned his audience against any Ivory Tower approach to Black literature. Instead of remaining sheltered "in the swaddling clothes of our academic complacencies," Gates said scholars must be aware of "the yawning chasm between our critical discourse and the traditions they discourse upon...
...Gates' talk, one could hear both the confidence of Black literary criticism and the doubts which have accompanied its rise in the field of Afro-American studies. For while Black studies is increasingly moving towards literature and away from history, some scholars worry that in the process, the political relevancy of the field may be diminshed...
This shift in the direction of Black studies away from history and towards literature will surely be felt at Harvard over the next few years, as the University's Afro-Am and English Departments both begin to rebuild their senior faculties...
Indeed, it may be symbolic of the new connections between literature and Afro-American studies that Gates has just been appointed chair of Harvard's Afro-Am Visiting Committee, a position he says he will use to help Harvard emerge as a leader in the field...
...dinner with members of Harvard's Afro-Am Department following his talk, Gates and DuBois Professor of History and Afro-American Studies Nathin I. Huggins engaged in a long discussion on precisely this topic. Professors who atteneded the dinner said the night represented a kind of passing of the torch in Black studies from the older historian to the younger literary critic...