James W. Coleman's Books

Faithful Vision

Treatments of the Sacred, Spiritual, and Supernatural in Twentieth-Century African American Fiction

By: James W. Coleman

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Faithful Vision

Treatments of the Sacred, Spiritual, and Supernatural in Twentieth-Century African American Fiction

By: James W. Coleman

This is a marvelous and sustained discussion of 'faithful vision' and its significant influence on African American literature." -- American Literature In Faithful Vision, James W. Coleman places under his critical lens a wide array of African American novels written during the last half of the twentieth century. In doing so, he demonstrates that religious vision not only informs black literature but also serves as a foundation for black culture generally. The Judeo-Christian tradition, according to Coleman, is the primary component of the African American spiritual perspective, though its syncretism with voodoo/hoodoo -- a religion transported from West Africa through the West Indies and New Orleans to the rest of black America -- also figures largely. Reviewing novels written mainly since 1950 by writers including James Baldwin, Randall Kenan, Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Erna Brodber, and Ishmael Reed, among others, Coleman explores how black authors have addressed the relevance of faith, especially as it relates to an oppressive Christian tradition. He shows that their novels -- no matter how critical of the sacred or supernatural, or how skeptical the characters' viewpoints -- ultimately never reject the vision of faith. With its focus on religious experience and tradition and its wider discussion of history, philosophy, gender, and postmodernism, Faithful Vision brings a bold critical dimension to African American literary studies. "An insightful interrogation of the complexities of religious discourse in the African American literary tradition. Because it superbly translates complex spiritual ethos into literary tradition, this remarkable book is a must for anyone interested in intersections of the sacred and the secular in black cultural productions." -- Southern Literary Journal "Faithful Vision both looks intently into faith and shows us how to look." -- Christianity and Literature

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Page Count

391

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807146196

ISBN 13

9780807146194

Black Baseball, 1858-1900

A Comprehensive Record of the Teams, Players, Managers, Owners and Umpires

By: James E. Brunson III

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Black Baseball, 1858-1900

A Comprehensive Record of the Teams, Players, Managers, Owners and Umpires

By: James E. Brunson III

This is one of the most important baseball books to be published in a long time, taking a comprehensive look at black participation in the national pastime from 1858 through 1900. It provides team rosters and team histories, player biographies, a list of umpires and games they officiated and information on team managers and team secretaries. Well known organizations like the Washington's Mutuals, Philadelphia Pythians, Chicago Uniques, St. Louis Black Stockings, Cuban Giants and Chicago Unions are documented, as well as lesser known teams like the Wilmington Mutuals, Newton Black Stockings, San Francisco Enterprise, Dallas Black Stockings, Galveston Flyaways, Louisville Brotherhoods and Helena Pastimes. Player biographies trace their connections between teams across the country. Essays frame the biographies, discussing the social and cultural events that shaped black baseball. Waiters and barbers formed the earliest organized clubs and developed local, regional and national circuits. Some players belonged to both white and colored clubs, and some umpires officiated colored, white and interracial matches. High schools nurtured young players and transformed them into powerhouse teams, like Cincinnati's Vigilant Base Ball Club. A special essay covers visual representations of black baseball and the artists who created them, including colored artists of color who were also baseballists.

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Page Count

1402

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786494174

ISBN 13

9780786494170

Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban

By: James W. Coleman

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Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban

By: James W. Coleman

With The Tempest's Caliban, Shakespeare created an archetype in the modern era depicting black men as slaves and savages who threaten civilization. As contemporary black male fiction writers have tried to free their subjects and themselves from this legacy to tell a story of liberation, they often unconsciously retell the story, making their heroes into modern-day Calibans. Coleman analyzes the modern and postmodern novels of John Edgar Wideman, Clarence Major, Charles Johnson, William Melvin Kelley, Trey Ellis, David Bradley, and Wesley Brown. He traces the Caliban legacy to early literary influences, primarily Ralph Ellison, and then deftly demonstrates its contemporary manifestations. This engaging study challenges those who argue for the liberating possibilities of the postmodern narrative, as Coleman reveals the pervasiveness and influence of Calibanic discourse. At the heart of James Coleman's study is the perceived history of the black male in Western culture and the traditional racist stereotypes indigenous to the language. Calibanic discourse, Coleman argues, so deeply and subconsciously influences the texts of black male writers that they are unable to cast off the oppression inherent in this discourse. Coleman wants to change the perception of black male writers' struggle with oppression by showing that it is their special struggle with language. Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban is the first book to analyze a substantial body of black male fiction from a central perspective.

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Page Count

255

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813193559

ISBN 13

9780813193557

Writing Blackness

John Edgar Wideman's Art and Experimentation

By: James W. Coleman

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Writing Blackness

John Edgar Wideman's Art and Experimentation

By: James W. Coleman

One of the most critically acclaimed yet least recognized contemporary writers, African American author John Edgar Wideman creates work often described as difficult, even unfathomable. In Writing Blackness, James Coleman examines Wideman's prolific body of work with the goal of making his often elusive imagery and dense style more accessible and thus broadening his readership. More so than for most writers, Coleman shows, Wideman's life has affected his writing. Born in 1941, Wideman grew up in a Pittsburgh suburb where he attended an integrated high school, starred on the basketball team, and was senior class president and valedictorian. At the University of Pennsylvania he studied creative writing and became an all--Ivy League basketball player. Winning a Rhodes scholarship, he studied at Oxford, after which he returned to Penn and became its first black tenured professor. Wideman published his first novel, A Glance Away, at age twenty-six and by 1973 had published two more works of fiction. But for all this success, something began to wear on him. In 1973, his grandmother died, and after listening to family stories when he traveled home for the funeral, Wideman began to change his world view. Between 1973 and 1981 Wideman published nothing and immersed himself in African American culture, reading widely and -- even more important -- moving much closer to his family. Since 1981, Wideman has refocused his life and writing on blackness and published twelve experimental works, all very different from his earlier books. Coleman examines nearly all of Wideman's work, from A Glance Away (1967) to Fanon (2008). He shows how Wideman has developed a unique style that combines elements of fiction, biography, memoir, history, legend, folklore, waking life, and dream in innovative ways in an effort to grasp the meaning of blackness -- an effort that makes his writing challenging but that holds more than ample rewards for the perceptive reader. In Writing Blackness, Coleman demonstrates why Wideman ranks among the best of contemporary American writers.

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Page Count

286

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807147273

ISBN 13

9780807147276

A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky

By: James F. Hopkins

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A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky

By: James F. Hopkins

It is hard to believe that at one time burley tobacco was not the chief cash crop in Kentucky. Yet for more than half a century hemp dominated the state's agricultural production. James Hopkins surveys the hemp industry in Kentucky from its beginning through its complete demise at the end of World War II, describing the processes of seeding and harvesting the plant, and marketing manufactured goods made of the fiber. With debate presently raging over the legalization of industrial hemp, it is essential that an accurate portrait of this controversial resource be available. Although originally published in 1951, Hopkins's work remains remarkably current as hemp manufacturing today is little changed from the practices the author describes. This edition includes an updated bibliography of recent publications concerning the scientific, economic, and political facets of industrial hemp.

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Page Count

339

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813184185

ISBN 13

9780813184180

Jurist Prudent -- The Judicial Opinions of Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr., Volume 2

By: Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr.,James W. Benton, Jr. (Foreword),John S. Koehler (Editor)

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Jurist Prudent -- The Judicial Opinions of Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr., Volume 2

By: Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr.,James W. Benton, Jr. (Foreword),John S. Koehler (Editor)

Upon his retirement from active service as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia in 2011, Justice Koontz had completed more than four decades of service to citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In order to recognize that service and help preserve Justice Koontz's legacy as one of the outstanding jurists in Virginia and the United States, the Salem/Roanoke County Bar Association instituted this project to collect all of Justice Koontz's published opinions, both from his tenure as a Justice of the Supreme Court and as an inaugural member of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. The second volume to be produced by the Opinions Project includes opinions, concurrences and dissents authored by Justice Koontz during the majority of his second four-year term as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. This volume includes the opinions addressing the contempt citations brought against the United Mine Workers during the 1989-1990 Pittston Coal Strike.

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Page Count

550

Publisher

Lulu.com

Published Date

ISBN 10

1257116193

ISBN 13

9781257116195

Religion and the Enlightenment

From Descartes to Kant

By: James M. Byrne

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Religion and the Enlightenment

From Descartes to Kant

By: James M. Byrne

This volume offers an overview of the Enlightenment's revolution of Western theology. It explains the era's ideas within the framework of religion, politics, and society--and shows how they impacted that society.

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Page Count

272

Publisher

Westminster John Knox Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0664257607

ISBN 13

9780664257606

Book's by James W. Coleman

Faithful Vision

Faithful Vision

Black Baseball, 1858-1900

Black Baseball, 1858-1900

Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban

Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban

Writing Blackness

Writing Blackness

A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky

A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky

Jurist Prudent -- The Judicial Opinions of Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr., Volume 2

Jurist Prudent -- The Judicial Opinions of Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr., Volume 2

Religion and the Enlightenment

Religion and the Enlightenment

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