Phillis Wheatley

Kathleen De Grave (Pittsburg State University)

Ed. by Stephen E. Meats, Pittsburg State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.1: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Colonial Period, 1604-1783.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Scott Slawinski (Western Michigan University)

Dates

Born 1753
Died 1784
Activity 1773-1784

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Phillis Wheatley’s importance, as the first black American to publish a book in English, has never been in question. In her own time, the publication of her book of 38 poems cast doubt upon the belief that blacks were culturally inferior and mentally incapable of producing great literature. In the modern era, she is recognized for simultaneously beginning the African-American and the African-American women’s literary traditions. However, since its publication, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773), Wheatley’s sole book of poetry (written before she was twenty), has been controversial. While some critics have argued that the poetry is imitative and controlled by the white value system, other, more …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2370 words

Citation: De Grave, Kathleen. "Phillis Wheatley". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 September 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4680, accessed 24 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here