Clarence Major and His Art: Portraits of an African American Postmodernist

Edited by Bernard W. Bell.

A critical appreciation of a challenging
writer, poet and artist


Poet, novelist, essayist, editor, anthologist, lexicographer, and painter, Clarence Major is one of the most challenging, prolific, yet underappreciated contemporary African American artists. This collection combines poetry, prose and art by Major with critical essays that showcase his aesthetic movement across literary, cultural, and political boundaries and illuminate the complex relationship between his writing and painting. Although Major's artistic vision is grounded in the historical experiences of black and Native American peoples, he boldly experiments with crossing boundaries of all types. His use of different narrative voices is evidence of what editor Bernard Bedll calls Major's "double consciousness" as an African American artist.

This collection highlights the breadth of Major's work, his transformation into a postmodern artist, and the hybrid voices of his literary and visual productions. By presenting Major's poetry, novelist, and paintings alongside critical interpretations of these works, this book makes possible a long-overdue examination of a multitalented artist.

Clarence Major is professor of English and creative writing at the University of California, Davis. Among his best-known works are Reflex and Bone Structure, All-Night Visitors, Dirty Bird Blues,and Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar. His most recent book of poetry, Configurations: New & Selected Poems 1958-1998,was a 1999 National Book Award finalist.

Bernard W. Bell is professor of American and African American literatures at Pennsylvania State University.

Contributors: Bernard W. Bell, Penn State University; James W. Coleman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Steve Hayward, writer, Albuquerque, NM; Stuart Klawans, art and film critic, New York; Jerome Klinkowitz, University of Northern Iowa; Jerzy Kutnik, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Poland; Nathaniel Mackey, University of California, Santa Cruz; Larry McCaffery, San Diego State University; Lisa C. Roney, Penn State University; Linda Ferguson Selzer, Penn State University; Stephen Soitos, writer and painter, Northampton, MA; Joe Weixlmann, Indiana State University.

Approx. 360 pp., 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, 25 illus., notes, biblography, index ISBN 0-8078-2586-7, $59.95 Cloth ISBN 0-8078-4899-9, $19.95 Paper

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