Based on the proceedings of a two-week seminar about Afro-American literature, this book is designed as a carefully orchestrated presentation of the central ideas that sparked the meetings and made them significant. The essays are arranged in sections that discuss Afro-American literary history, black figurative language, Afro-American literature and folklore, Frederick Douglass' 1845 narrative, and suggested Afro-American literature course designs. An appendix lists the required readings upon which the seminar was based. (RL)