Water and African American Memory: An Ecocritical Perspective

Title Page, Copyright

University Press of Florida Water and An Ecocritical Perspective Anissa Janine Wardi Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa Boca Raton · Pensacola · Orlando · Miami Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota African American Memory Copyright 2011 by Anissa Janine Wardi All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on Glatfelter Natures Book, a paper certified under the standards of the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). It is a recycled stock that contains 30 percent post-consumer waste and is acid-free. 16 15 14 13 12 11 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wardi, Anissa Janine, 1969– Water and African American memory : an ecocritical perspective / Anissa Janine Wardi. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8130-3745-5 (alk. paper) 1. American fiction—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. African Americans in literature. 3. African diaspora in literature. 4. Water in literature. 5. Water in motion pictures. 6. Ecocriticism. I. Title. PS153.N5W344 2011 810.9'896073—dc23 2011018995 The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida. University Press of Florida 15 Northwest 15th Street Gainesville, FL 32611-2079 http://www.upf.com Excerpts from Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange copyright © 1982 by the author and reprinted by permission of Picador. Parts of the introduction to this book appeared previously in Anissa Wardi’s “Currents of Memory: Ancestral Waters in Henry Dumas’ ‘Ark of Bones’ and August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean” in ISLE 16.4 (2009). For my husband, Casey Kurtz, and our son, Malcolm ...