Who Set You Flowin'?: The African-American Migration Narrative (Race and American Culture)

Rating:
Summary: Superb literary analysis
Review: Farah Jasmine Griffin's invaluable book brings together a wide variety of sources -- from novels and poetry to photography and music lyrics -- to illustrate how migration has impacted African-American life and art. The writing is smooth and concise, but I particularly enjoyed the way Griffin creates a new vocabulary for discussing urban/rural cultural representations. She also looks at the way gender impacts migration narratives, which I found helpful. This work would be extremely helpful to anyone studying African-American literature, particularly Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, or Gloria Naylor as well as blues singers and the artist, Jacob Lawrence.