Born in a mighty bad land : the violent man in African American folklore and fiction / Jerry H. Bryant.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The classic badman and the ballad -- Postbellum violence and its causes : "displaced rage" in a preindustrial culture -- Between the wars : the genteel novel, counterstereotypes, and initial probes -- From the genteel to the primitive : the twenties and thirties -- The ghetto bildungsroman : from the forties to the seventies -- Toasts : tales of the "bad nigger" -- Chester Himes : Harlem absurd -- A "toast" novel : pimps, hoodlums, and hit men -- Walter Mosley and the violent men of Watts -- Rap : going commercial -- The badman and the storyteller : John Edgar Wideman's homewood trilogy -- Toni Morrison : Ulysses, badmen, and archetypes--abandoning violence -- Appendix : Analysis of thirty prototype ballads.

The figure of the violent man in the African American imagination has a long history. He can be found in 19th-century bad man ballads like 'Stagolee' and 'John Hardy, ' as well as in the black convict recitations that influenced 'gansta' rap. Born in a Mighty Bad Land connects this figure with similar characters in African American fiction.

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English.

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