Nielsen is aware that for many readers, including the anthologists who create textbooks, African American literature is thought to be primarily realistic in style and sociological or political in content. Avant-garde expressions--beyond the obvious examples offered by Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, and Ishmael reed--are frequently overlooked. While such a narrow view is more readily apparent in critical attention given to fiction than in that given to poetry, it certainly skews anthologies. Nielsen is acutely aware of the serious political motives that often underlie such compilations and is also concerned that the currently popular critical paradigm of an oral tradition might deflect proper attention due African American literary traditions.