Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism

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Review of the book
Norton Anthology of theory and criticism (Leitch, Vincent et al.)
Talking Black: Critical signs of the times
It is reviewed that in the early twentieth century, many African American sociologists
and historians protests for the voice of black. Alexander Crummell was one of the pioneered of
the nineteenth century who has spent numerous years as an Anglican minister in Liberia.
Crummell has established the American Negro Academy in 1897 and considered as the president
of the academy. It is argued by Crummell that desire to stamp out the understanding of Negro
had led to the representation of laws and statutes, which barred the doors of each close room
against Negros. As per Crummell, the prominent sign of humanity of black person would be the
mastering of the very spirit of western civilization on which the white western culture
constructed. The book reveals that black people face immense racism in the western society and
the western letters demanded them to prove their complete humanity.
Numerous western racialists like Thomas Jefferson, David Hume, Francis Bacon, and
Immanuel Kant were claimed that black persons must write verse in order to demonstrate their
humanity. Crummell was one of the brilliant black intellectuals in the African American fashion
who accepted the challenge of the racialists. “Crummell never stopped believing that mastering

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the master’s tongue was the sole path to civilization and social equality for the black person
(Leitch et al. 2245).” As per Crummell, mastering of master’s tongue does not alone create a
path for black people to achieve intellectual freedom as well as social equality. He also asserted
that black people must right for their rightful legacy. Besides this, the attainment of the English
language, as well as Christianity, is considered as the delightful sign of God’s wisdom.
The key strength of the book is that the author has effectively described the use of
English language in decreasing racism from society and obtaining intellectual freedom for the
black people. “In the English language are embodied, the noblest theories of liberty and the
grandest ideas of humanity (Leitch et al. 2246).” It is revealed that the liberty, as well as
humanity, are the key theories of English language, which identified the fact that if the black
persons leading the master’s language, then the ideas of theories would keep them alive as the
vitality of nations. The author in the book has reflected that learning master’s language is an act
of liberation for the generation of critics. The author focuses on the language that every person
must choose to speak or write their own criticisms. The book has provided a better understanding
of numerous theories used in criticizing literature, traditions and western culture. It allows the
readers to develop critic of different literature in which black people were represented as having
intellectual ability to build an art that delimit the humanity of all such persons in the western
culture (Henderson 189).
Moreover, the author wants to make the reader understand the criticism of the theory,
which states that the theory is something that black people doomed to imitate their white
colleagues. Through the book, the author wants the people not to capitulate to the disastrous trap
of white influence. It is argued by the author that black people should not repeat the fault of
accepting the authorizing language of white critical theory as a common language (Paul 140-