The Black Atlantic at Thirty: Implications for the Canon and for Publication and Instruction.

COLLEGE curriculum; AFRICAN American authors; BLACK people; AFRICAN American literature; SCHOLARLY method; ANTHOLOGIES; CAPTIVITY

This article examines the study of early African American literature and challenges two common practices: reliance on the Norton Anthology of African American Literature and prioritization of authorized versions of Black-authored texts. The author argues that focusing on "fluid texts," or literary works with multiple versions, can offer new insights and improve scholarship and instruction. The article also explores the concept of the Black Atlantic as a countercultural response to anti-black modernity, emphasizing the hybridity and fluidity of African Atlantic texts. Using examples from John Marrant, Phillis Wheatley, and Lemuel Haynes, the author illustrates the connections between fluid texts, the African Atlantic encounter with modernity, and the paradigm of the Black Atlantic. The text concludes by advocating for the recognition and support of this type of editorial and scholarly work, drawing inspiration from Dorothy Porter's influential anthology, "Early Negro Writing." [Extracted from the article]

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