Smith College Libraries Class Guides - AAS237: Twentieth-century African-American Literature

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Dictionaries

African Heritage of American English
Call Number: ref PE 3102.N4 H65 1993
Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner
Call Number: ref PE 3102 .N4 S65 2000
The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States
Call Number: ref E 184 .A1 H466 1997
Fresh Fly Flavor: Words and Phrases of the Hip-hop Generation
Call Number: ref PE 3727 .N4 F3 1992
Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang
Call Number: ref PE 3727 .N4 M34 1994b

Encyclopedias

Use these sources for background information and a list of suggested readings.

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas (6 vols.)
Call Number: ref E 185 .E54 2006
Oxford African American Studies Center
Includes all articles from these core reference works: African American National Biography; Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; and Black Women in America.
African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide
Call Number: ref PS 338.N4 A69 2004
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers. (2 vols.)
Call Number: ref PS 153.N5 E49 2007
Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Literature
Call Number: ref PS 153.N5 E53 2009
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (2 vols.)
Call Number: ref NX 512.3.A35 E53 2004
Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. (5 vols.)
Call Number: ref PS 153 .N5 G73 2005
Handbook of African American Literature
Call Number: ref PS 153 .N5 E78 2004
Oxford Art Online
Covers art movements, media & materials, themes & subjects, specific places and artists.
Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Call Number: ref PS 153 .N5 O96 1997
Oxford Music Online
Includes jazz and popular music.
Dictionary of Literary Biography
Call Number: ref PN 451 .D53
Use the index in the last volume to look up a specific writer. Or browse these volumes: Afro-American Writers before the Harlem Renaissance (v. 50); Afro-American writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940 (v. 51); Afro-American writers, 1940-1955 (v. 76); Afro-American Fiction Writers after 1955 (v. 33); Afro-American Writers after 1955: Dramatists and Prose Writers (v. 38); and Afro-American poets since 1955 (v. 41).