Black Samson
The Untold Story of an American Icon
Published on 1. September 2020
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-0-19-068978-0 (ISBN)
Description
Before Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King was identified with Moses, African Americans identified those who challenged racial oppression in America with Samson. In Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon, Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper tell the story of how this biblical character became an icon of African American literature. Along the way, Schipper and Junior introduce readers to a cast of historical characters-many of whom became American icons themselves-including Fredrick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton and others.
From stories of slave rebellions to the Harlem Renaissance to the civil rights era and the Black Power movement, invoking the biblical character of Samson became a powerful way for African American intellectuals, activists, and artists to voice strategies and opinions about race relations in America. As this provocative book reveals, the story of Black Samson became the story of our nation's contested racial history.
From stories of slave rebellions to the Harlem Renaissance to the civil rights era and the Black Power movement, invoking the biblical character of Samson became a powerful way for African American intellectuals, activists, and artists to voice strategies and opinions about race relations in America. As this provocative book reveals, the story of Black Samson became the story of our nation's contested racial history.
Reviews / Votes
readers walk away with a richer understanding of race in America ... Junior and Schipper help readers understand complex forces at work. * Matthew Schlimm, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology * A beautiful book * Nick Taliaferro, WURD Radio * Black Samson is simultaneously specific and expansive, a fascinating and original contribution to scholarship at the intersections of American religious history and African American literary studies. Junior and Schipper persuasively demonstrate that the Samson myth has figured as a site for contesting race in many different communities across American history. * Josef Sorett, author of Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics * This is an original and ingenious book. The fact that biblical characters such as Samson have played a large role in black politics of response in the United States is well-known. Yet there is a void in scholarship on biblical characters using African American informed hermeneutics. Black Samson fills that gap and goes a long way toward expanding the fields of biblical studies, American religion, and African American studies. * Jonathan L. Walton, Dean of the Divinity School, Wake Forest University * This concise study examines the use of biblical imagery of Samson to depict African Americans' freedom struggles...Recommended. General readers through faculty. * Choice *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
11
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
440 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-068978-0 (9780190689780)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
06/2020
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download
E-Book
06/2020
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download
Persons
Dr. Nyasha Junior is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. She holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. An award-winning author and expert on feminist, womanist, and African-American biblical interpretation, she writes for scholarly and general audiences at a variety of media outlets.
Dr. Jeremy Schipper is a Professor in the Department of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. He holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. A prolific and critically acclaimed author, he has published widely on the use of the Bible in discussions of identity, including ethnicity, gender race, and disability, in ancient and contemporary contexts. He was awarded a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship for Denmark Vesey's Bible: Biblical Interpretation and the Trial that Changed a Nation.
Dr. Jeremy Schipper is a Professor in the Department of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. He holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. A prolific and critically acclaimed author, he has published widely on the use of the Bible in discussions of identity, including ethnicity, gender race, and disability, in ancient and contemporary contexts. He was awarded a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship for Denmark Vesey's Bible: Biblical Interpretation and the Trial that Changed a Nation.
Content
Introduction
Chapter One: Black Samson in the Temple of Liberty
Chapter Two: Black Samson of Brandywine
Chapter Three: Samson and the Making of American Martyrs
Chapter Four: Black Samson and Labor Movements
Chapter Five: The Samson Complex
Chapter Six: But Some of Us are Strong Believers in the Samson Myth
Chapter Seven: Visual Representations of Black Samson
Epilogue: Black Samson, an American Icon
Appendix
Bibliography
Chapter One: Black Samson in the Temple of Liberty
Chapter Two: Black Samson of Brandywine
Chapter Three: Samson and the Making of American Martyrs
Chapter Four: Black Samson and Labor Movements
Chapter Five: The Samson Complex
Chapter Six: But Some of Us are Strong Believers in the Samson Myth
Chapter Seven: Visual Representations of Black Samson
Epilogue: Black Samson, an American Icon
Appendix
Bibliography