Sapphire's Literary Breakthrough

Introduction: PUSHing Boundaries, PUSHing Art PART I: TRANSFORMATIONAL REPRESENTATIONS 1. Sapphire's PUSH : Locating Safe Sites for Writing and Personal Transformation; Lynette D. Myles 2. 'Bombs Cost More than Welfare': Rethinking 'Responsibility' in Sapphire's PUSH ; Toni Fellela 3. Multiple Oppressions, 'Multiple Consciousness,' and the Spirit of Harriet Tubman in Sapphire's PUSH ; Barbara McCaskill PART II: BODY AND PLACE 4. 'Spiky Green Life': Environmental Justice Themes in Sapphire's PUSH ; Joni Adamson 5. Un-'Freak'ing Black Female Self: Grotesque-Erotic Agency and Ecofeminist Unity in Sapphire's PUSH ; Elizabeth McNeil 6. Sapphire's PUSH for Erotic Literacy and Black Girl Sexual Agency; L. H. Stallings 7. Awakening to Self-Love in PUSH : Understanding the Significance of Sapphire's Harlem; Wilfred D. Samuels PART III: PEDAGOGY AND THE ACADEMY 8. Looking for 'the Alternative[s]': Locating Sapphire's PUSH in African American Literary Tradition through Literacy and Orality;DoVeanna S. Fulton Minor 9. Deconstructing the 'Pedagogy of Abuse': Teaching Child Sexual Abuse Narratives; Elizabeth McNeil 10. 'Rock the Motherfucking House': Guiding a Study of Sapphire's PUSH ; Neal A. Lester 11. Why does Precious have to Lighten Up or Shuffle? Teaching with Lee Daniels's 'Adaptation'; Christopher Burrell and James Wermers PART IV: ENGAGING THE WORK, ENGAGING THE WRITER 12. PUSH ing to Precious: A Compilation and Annotation of Works by and about Sapphire; Eric Parks

DoVeanna S. Fulton is Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Gender and Race Studies at the University of Alabama.