The Water Dancer
E117053
The Water Dancer is a debut novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates that blends historical fiction and magical realism to explore slavery, memory, and freedom in the antebellum American South.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Water Dancer canonical | 3 |
| Water Dancer | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T994698 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Water Dancer Context triple: [Ta-Nehisi Coates, notableWork, The Water Dancer]
-
A.
The Lowland
The Lowland is a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri that explores the intertwined lives of two brothers from Calcutta against the backdrop of political upheaval and family tragedy.
-
B.
Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon is a critically acclaimed novel by Toni Morrison that explores African American identity, family history, and the search for personal freedom through the life of its protagonist, Milkman Dead.
-
C.
Sula
Sula is a 1973 novel by American author Toni Morrison that explores Black female friendship, community, and identity in a small Ohio town.
-
D.
A Mercy
"A Mercy" is a historical novel by Toni Morrison that explores themes of slavery, motherhood, and identity in 17th-century America through the intertwined lives of several women.
-
E.
The Light We Carry
The Light We Carry is a 2022 nonfiction book by Michelle Obama that offers personal reflections and practical wisdom on resilience, hope, and navigating uncertainty.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Water Dancer Target entity description: The Water Dancer is a debut novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates that blends historical fiction and magical realism to explore slavery, memory, and freedom in the antebellum American South.
-
A.
The Lowland
The Lowland is a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri that explores the intertwined lives of two brothers from Calcutta against the backdrop of political upheaval and family tragedy.
-
B.
Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon is a critically acclaimed novel by Toni Morrison that explores African American identity, family history, and the search for personal freedom through the life of its protagonist, Milkman Dead.
-
C.
Sula
Sula is a 1973 novel by American author Toni Morrison that explores Black female friendship, community, and identity in a small Ohio town.
-
D.
A Mercy
"A Mercy" is a historical novel by Toni Morrison that explores themes of slavery, motherhood, and identity in 17th-century America through the intertwined lives of several women.
-
E.
The Light We Carry
The Light We Carry is a 2022 nonfiction book by Michelle Obama that offers personal reflections and practical wisdom on resilience, hope, and navigating uncertainty.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
debut novel
ⓘ
novel ⓘ |
| author | Ta-Nehisi Coates ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| coverArtist | Greg Mollica ⓘ |
| exploresTopic |
family separation under slavery
ⓘ
Underground Railroad routes ⓘ
surface form:
the Underground Railroad
the power of storytelling ⓘ trauma and remembrance ⓘ |
| featuresElement | supernatural power of conduction ⓘ |
| genre |
historical fiction
ⓘ
magical realism ⓘ |
| hasISBN | 9780399590597 ⓘ |
| hasMediaType |
audiobook
ⓘ
ebook ⓘ print ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
African American history
ⓘ
family and kinship ⓘ magical abilities linked to memory ⓘ plantation life ⓘ resistance to slavery ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | contemporary African-American literature ⓘ |
| literaryStyle | blend of realism and fantasy ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Hiram Walker ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
freedom
ⓘ
memory ⓘ slavery ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first-person ⓘ |
| notableCharacter |
Corrine Quinn
ⓘ
Sophia ⓘ Thena ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| pageCount | 416 ⓘ |
| protagonistIs | enslaved man ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 2019-09-24 ⓘ |
| publisher | One World ⓘ |
| publisherImprint | One World (Random House imprint) ⓘ |
| receivedRecognition |
New York Times bestseller
ⓘ
Oprah's Book Club ⓘ
surface form:
Oprah's Book Club selection
|
| setInPeriod | antebellum American South ⓘ |
| settingRegion | Virginia ⓘ |
| targetAudience | adult readers ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Water Dancer Description of subject: The Water Dancer is a debut novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates that blends historical fiction and magical realism to explore slavery, memory, and freedom in the antebellum American South.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Ta-Nehisi Coates
this entity surface form:
Water Dancer