This volume is a selection of significant and previously unpublished essays and short stories by the influential critic of German and American literature and popular culture, James A. Snead. The volume contains innovative essays and notes about African American popular culture, literary criticism and five pieces of short fiction. Published posthumously, the volume attests to Snead's unique intellectual commitment to a critical engagement with the interconnections between European and African American cultural formations.

'This long awaited book is a gem - yet still a small part of the huge corpus of the life of James Snead. He stands among the most important American intellectuals in the late 20th Century.' - Cornel West, Professor of Afro-American Studies, Princeton, USA