{"product_id":"9780253109897","title":"\"Born in a Mighty Bad Land\": The Violent Man in African American Folklore and Fiction","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe figure of the violent man in the African American imagination has a\u003cbr\u003e long history. He can be found in 19th-century bad man ballads like\u003cbr\u003e \"Stagolee\" and \"John Hardy,\" as well as in the black convict\u003cbr\u003e recitations that influenced \"gangsta\" rap. \"Born in a Mighty Bad\u003cbr\u003e Land\" connects this figure with similar characters in African American fiction.\u003cbr\u003e Many writers -- McKay and Hurston in the Harlem Renaissance; Wright, Baldwin, and\u003cbr\u003e Ellison in the '40s and '50s; Himes in the '50s and '60s -- saw the \"bad\u003cbr\u003e nigger\" as an archetypal figure in the black imagination and psyche.\u003cbr\u003e \"Blaxploitation\" novels in the '70s made him a virtually mythical\u003cbr\u003e character. More recently, Mosley, Wideman, and Morrison have presented him as ghetto\u003cbr\u003e philosopher and cultural adventurer. Behind the folklore and fiction, many theories\u003cbr\u003e have been proposed to explain the source of the bad man's intra-racial violence.\u003cbr\u003e Jerry H. Bryant explores all of these elements in a wide-ranging and illuminating\u003cbr\u003e look at one of the most misunderstood figures in African American culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Indiana University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47101144957168,"sku":"9780253109897","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780253109897_p0.jpg?v=1763681747","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780253109897","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}