The Chancellor's Reading Club selection for 2006
is The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales, by Charles W.
Chesnutt. The edition used is that of Richard H. Brodhead:
- Chesnutt, Charles W. The Conjure Woman and
other Conjure Tales. Edited by Richard H. Brodhead.
Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1993.
Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was one of the
first successful African American fiction writers. Chesnutt grew up
in Fayetteville and from 1880-1883 served as principal of the State
Colored Normal School, from which Fayetteville State University
would eventually emerge.
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Dr. Richard H. Brodhead edited the version of
The Conjure Woman selected for the Chancellor's Reading Club.
Dr. Brodhead, president of Duke University, is a noted scholar of
nineteenth-century American fiction.
- Richard H. Brodhead, "Charles W. Chesnutt:
Starting Out in Fayetteville," September 20, 2006. Hear Dr.
Brodhead's remarks in a variety of formats:
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"The stories in The Conjure Woman were
Charles W. Chesnutt's first great literary success. Since
their initial publication in 1899 the have come to be seen as some
of the most remarkable works of African American literature from the
Emancipation through the Harlem Renaissance. . .
"In the tradition of Uncle Remus, the
conjure tale listens in on a poor black southerner, who recounts in
a strong dialect a local incident to a transplanted northener for
the northerner's enlightenment and edification. But in
Chesnutt's hand the tradition is transfored. No longer a
reactionary flight of nostalgia for the antebellum South, the
stories in this book celebrate and at the same time question the
folk culture they so pungently portray, ultimately conveing the
pleasure and anxieties of a world in transition. . . ."
From The Conjure Woman and Other
Conjure Tales,
Brodhead ed., jacket
Visit the Resources page
for more information about Charles W. Chesnutt and his works. |
