The Conjure Woman

by Charles W. Chesnutt

Overview

The Conjure Woman is a collection of short stories by African-American fiction writer, essayist, and activist Charles W. Chesnutt. First published in 1899, it is considered a seminal work of African-American literature. Written in the late nineteenth century, a time of enormous growth and change for a country only recently reunited in peace, these stories act as the uneasy meeting ground for the culture of northern capitalism, professionalism, and Christianity and the underdeveloped southern economy, a kind of colonial Third World whose power is manifest in life charms and magic spells, all embodied by the ruling figure of the conjure woman. Charles Waddell Chesnutt was an author, essayist and political activist, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783734018992
Publisher:	Outlook Verlag
Publication date:	09/23/2018
Pages:	154
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was the author of many books, including the novel The Marrow of Tradition and the collection The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories, also available from the University of Michigan Press.

Table of Contents

Superstitions and Folklore of the South by Charles W. Chesnutt; 1-The Goophered Grapevine; 2-Poor Sandy; 3-Master James's Nightmare; 4-The Conjurer's Revenge; 5-Sister Becky's Baby; 6-The Gray Wolf's Haunt; 7-Hot-Foot Hannibal; Charles W. Chesnutt by Wikipedia Contributors; Appendix A: The Goophered Grapevine (Original); Appendix B: Po' Sandy (Original); Appendix C: Mars Jeems's Nightmare (Original); Appendix D: The Conjurer's Revenge (Original); Appendix E: Sis' Becky's Pickaninny (Original); Appendix F: The Gray Wolf's Ha'nt (Original); Appendix G:
Hot-Foot Hannibal (Original); Appendix H: Superstitions and Folk-Lore of the South (Original) by Charles W. Chesnutt

Editorial Reviews

Charles W. Chestnutt was the most widely read and influential African American fiction writer of his time and the first ever brought to press by a major publishing house. The Conjure Woman introduced the verbal and philosophical richness of African American folk culture to a white readership largely ignorant of true southern black life. Even today, this collection is thought to be among the best representations of life on a southern plantation to be found in American literature.

The Conjure Woman is a collection of "conjuring tales" written in rich dialect. Each of the stories masterfully portrays both the inhumanity of plantation life and the cunning wisdom used by many to survive post-Civil War neoslavery. The stories are more accurate than those written by contemporary writers like Joel Chandler Harris, whose Uncle Remus stories fondly portray life on the plantation. Chestnutt's stories more often reflect the true conditions of plantation life, if in slightly muted tones: forced separation of loved ones, the greed of the slave masters, and the ready violence to be found on the plantations.

Chestnutt's later—and more straightforward—explorations into biracialism, miscegenation, and racisim (The Home Behind the Cedars, The Marrow of Tradition, and The Colonel's Dream) met with so tepid a commercial response that Chestnutt decided to return to his private legal practice in order to support his family. But The Conjure Woman has ensured his reputation as a groundbreaking writer of fiction that truthfully tells the stories of slave life.

Sacred Life