Preaching the Gospel of Black Revolt: Appropriating Milton in Early African American Literature

Reginald A. Wilburn's book Preaching the Gospel of Black Revolt explores how early African American authors appropriated and remastered Milton's works to serve their own rhetorical purposes, highlighting the importance of Milton's status in literary tradition, Christian convictions, and poetic mastery. Wilburn's study engages with recent satanic criticism in Milton studies and invites scholars to traverse racial interpretation and the color line in literary studies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 406 pages
Publication date: 25 November 2020
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

1. In this groundbreaking comparative and hybrid study,Reginald A. Wilburn emerges as the first scholar to delve into the audacious reappropriations of Milton and his canonical works by African American authors. Wilburn's work engages in a profound exploration of the transatlantic negotiations between African Americans and one of the preeminent freedom writers in the English tradition.
2. Titled Preaching the Gospel of Black Revolt, this seminal work delves into the intricate ways in which early African American authors embraced and remastered Milton's literary legacy. Wilburn argues that these authors completed and nuanced England's epic poet of liberty by infusing it with the intertextual originality of repetitive difference.
3. The author's focus extends to a diverse range of early African American authors, including Phillis Wheatley, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Frederick Douglass, and Anna Julia Cooper. Through meticulous examinations of their works, Wilburn uncovers the profound presence of Milton as a reflection of early African Americans' rhetorical affiliations with the poet's satanic epic, aimed at achieving messianic purposes of freedom and racial uplift.
4. Wilburn elucidates that early African American authors were drawn to Milton's esteemed status within the literary tradition, his strong Christian convictions, and his poetic mastery of the English language. This tripartite ministry, combined with Milton's reputation as a sacred yet secular talking book of revolt, freedom, and cultural liberation, made him an invaluable intertext for authors whose writings and oratory were often underestimated or dismissed.
5. To unravel the complexities of these reappropriations, Wilburn employs close readings of canonical and obscure texts, delving into the ways in which various authors challenged prevailing assessments of black intellect. Through their creative interpretations and nuanced readings, these artists expanded the meanings, themes, and figures associated with Milton, infusing them with hermeneutic shades of interpretive and cultural difference.
6. Despite their deviations from orthodox interpretations, these authors held Milton's oeuvre in high regard, recognizing it as a sacred yet secular testament to revolt, freedom, and cultural liberation. Preaching the Gospel of Black Revolt thus serves as a groundbreaking exploration of the ways in which African American authors engaged with Milton's legacy, reshaping it to reflect their unique perspectives and experiences.

Weight: 612g
Dimension: 152 x 230 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271087290