Interpreting African American Slave Narratives

February 15, 2000

University Park, Pa. --- A new Penn State Press book, "Tribal Talk: Black Theology, Hermeneutics, and African American Ways of ‘Telling the Story’", provides a refreshing approach to reading, interpreting, and understanding the theological and literary nature of African American slave narratives.

The experiences of enslaved African Americans have been recorded in writings identified as slave narratives, also called liberation narratives. Although much has been written about slave culture and slave religion from sociological and historical perspectives, "Tribal Talk" is the first book to study slave narratives as a source for a contemporary, constructive black theology, while also paying close attention to their literary and rhetorical value.

Author Will Coleman explores from a theological, historical, and literary perspective the oral traditions of African American culture, and how those oral traditions have made an impact on the composition of slave narratives.

Specifically, Coleman, associate professor of theology and hermeneutics at Columbia Theological Seminary, examines the process by which religious beliefs were passed down from generation to generation. He explores the various interpretive strategies that aid in understanding both the theological and the literary nature of African American slave narratives. Ultimately, he links Black theology with the language and the religious experiences of enslaved Black people.

"Tribal Talk: Black Theology, Hermeneutics, and African American Ways of ‘Telling the Story'" is $50 for cloth edition, $18.95 for paper edition.

For ordering information, contact the Penn State University Press at 814-865-1327; Toll Free Order: 800-326-9180; or at www.psu.edu/psupress/ on the Internet.

Established in 1956, Penn State Press is a university press specializing in art history, Black studies, general interest, history, literary studies, philosophy, political science, religion, regional studies, sociology, and women's studies.

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Media Contact:

Amy Neil ??814-865-1327