‘If we must Die…': Dominant Sentiments in African-American Literature

Abstract

Black literature in America is essentially protest inclined. The prevalence of this attitude in the literary culture has a lot to do with the very nature of the black experience of slavery and the slave trade. In this paper, we provide a critical treatment of protest in black American literature by examining the protest of black writers against white oppression and that of black women against their brutalization by black men. The paper ends by affirming the relevance of protest as a veritable way for securing concessions and ultimately freedom for blacks in America as well as refuting the claim that the predominance of protest in literature necessarily has untoward effect on the development of literature.


(Humanities Review Journal: 2002 2(2): 44-56)