Nellie McKay (literary scholar)
Nellie Yvonne McKay (born Reynolds ; born May 12, 1930 in New York ; † January 22, 2006 in Madison , Wisconsin ) was an American literary scholar . She was the first black professor of African American literature .
Life
McKay grew up in New York as the daughter of Caribbean immigrants. In 1969 she earned a bachelor's degree at Queens College of the City University of New York , at the Harvard University in 1971 her Master's Degree in 1977 and a doctorate (Ph.D.) also there.
From 1972 to 1978 she taught at Simmons College in Boston, since 1978 at the University of Wisconsin – Madison , where she helped to develop the branch of African American literature in the department of African American studies . As president of the Midwest Consortium of Black Studies, she helped set up such departments across the United States. She died of liver cancer on January 22, 2006.
Main topics
She dealt primarily with Afro-American literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on fiction , autobiographical writings and the literature of black women writers.
literature
- Nellie Y. McKay, Maureen Honey: Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Rutgers University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8135-1420-7 .
- William L. Andrews, Nellie Y. McKay: Toni Morrison's Beloved: A Casebook. Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-19-510797-7 .
- Henry L. Gates , Nellie Y. McKay: Norton Anthology of African-American Literature. Norton, 2004, ISBN 0-393-97778-1 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | McKay, Nellie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | McKay, Nellie Yvonne (full name); Reynolds, Nellie Yvonne (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American literary scholar |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 12, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 22, 2006 |
| Place of death | Madison , Wisconsin , USA |