SOURCE: “In the American Canon,” in Redefining American Literary History, edited by A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff and Jerry W. Ward, Jr., The Modern Language Association of America, 1990, pp. 62-72.

In the following essay, Hemenway calls for broader criteria for the inclusion of African American literature into the canon of American literature.

Once upon a time I was asked to speak at a summer meeting of English department chairpersons. I accepted the invitation with solemn allopathic purpose, sure that I could offer restorative therapy to this honorable group of ex-idealists, these staff officers regularly battered by occupational hazards. I planned to energize those slipping toward ennui and levitate those seeking higher ground amidst that alligator-infested swamp known as “The Department.”

Then a funny thing happened on the way to therapy. In what was viewed by some as co-option, by others as the university's death wish, I was ambushed into...