(a)
African-American culture as embodied in music, art, and literature flourished as never before.
Is this sentence above an example of "as ... as"?
Or is it an example of ellipsis? What words are left out to avoid repetition?
Such as
(a*)
African-American culture as (which was) embodied in music, art, and literature flourished as (this culture) never (flourished) before.
It is not a comparison between two things, if I understand what you mean by "as ... as".
(c) is the closest in meaning to the original sentence.
(b) has a slightly different meaning. It seems to note, incidentally, that African-American culture happens to be embodied in those things, without specifically qualifying the exact sort of culture we are discussing.
(a) does not really make much sense.
To break down this complex sentence:
It would be more clear, I think, if we re-allocated some optional commas:
African-American culture, as embodied in music, art and literature, flourished as never before.
Or instead, with parentheses:
African-American culture (as embodied in music, art, and literature) flourished as never before.
By the way, the punctuation ... is called an ellipsis, not to be confused with the concept you asked about :)
This is not an example of "as ... as".
It's simply a sentence that happens to use the word "as" twice.
It means roughly:
African-American culture, which was embodied in music, art, and literature, flourished as it had never flourished before.
