Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson’s Activist Literature

This article illuminates how the meshing of key aspects of Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson’s life and work—writing political activism, teaching—has been obscured by American literary studies’ traditional overreliance on three related assumptions: that diachronicity suffices in accounts of an author’s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in African literatures Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 93 - 103
Main Author: Zagarell, Sandra A
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Bloomington Indiana University Press 22.09.2025
Subjects:
Activism
Activists
African Americans
American literature
Archives & records
Authors
Capitalism
Diachronic analysis
Dunbar, Paul Laurence (1872-1906)
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice Moore (1875-1935)
Essays
Ethnic identity
Fiction
Football
Literary criticism
Literary history
Personal profiles
Political activism
Political activity
Political appointments
Political literature
Political movements
Political participation
Political parties
Political science literature
Politics in literature
Public speaking
Racial identity
Secondary schools
Social aspects
Teaching
Womens suffrage
Works
Writers
Writing
United States
United States > US
ISSN:0034-5210, 1527-2044, 1527-2044
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This article illuminates how the meshing of key aspects of Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson’s life and work—writing political activism, teaching—has been obscured by American literary studies’ traditional overreliance on three related assumptions: that diachronicity suffices in accounts of an author’s life, that periodization suffices in accounts of literary history, and that authors are coherent beings. Discussing a range of Dunbar-Nelson’s work—an early sketch, an essay, and published and unpublished fiction— this essay combines synchronicity and diachronicity to engage with the multi-facetedness of her writing about such issues as racial identity and Black involvement in U.S. political parties.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0034-5210
1527-2044
1527-2044
DOI:10.2979/ral.00074