Who Set You Flowin'?: The African-American Migration Narrative

by Farah Jasmine Griffin

Book Overview

Twentieth-century America has witnessed the most widespread and sustained movement of African-Americans from the South to urban centers in the North. Who Set You Flowin'? examines the impact of this dislocation and urbanization, identifying the resulting Migration Narratives as a major genre in African-American cultural production. Griffin takes an interdisciplinary approach with readings of several literary texts, migrant correspondence, painting,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195088972
• ISBN13: 9780195088977
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Superb literary analysis

Farah Jasmine Griffin's invaluable book brings together a wide variety of sources -- from novels and poetry to photography and music lyrics -- to illustrate how migration has impacted African-American life and art. The writing is smooth and concise, but I particularly enjoyed the way Griffin creates a new vocabulary for discussing urban/rural cultural representations. She also looks at the way gender impacts migration narratives, which I found helpful. This work would be extremely helpful to anyone studying African-American literature, particularly Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, or Gloria Naylor as well as blues singers and the artist, Jacob Lawrence.