(46) Harlem Renaissance.

(L. Hughes, C. Cullen, C. McKay, Z. N. Hurston, and J. Toomer).

 

A f r o - A m e r i c a n  L i t e r a t u r e

[See "Background for Topics 45-46..."]

 

L a n g s t o n  H u g h e s  ( 1 9 0 2 – 6 7 )

L i f e :

- of a complex racial orig.

- underwent a series of various jobs, worked as a busboy in Washington D.C., when V. Lindsay launched his lit. career by publicising him in local papers

- supported himself after college by conducting a reading tour, travelled the US, Rus., China, and Japan, and asked to participate in a film to be shot in Rus. x but: the film never made

W o r k :

- the 1^st Af.-Am. to achieve an international reputation

- a versatile personality: a poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist, ed. Af.-Am. anthologies, author of autobiog., biographies, histories, journalistic writing, and trans.

- also wrote librettos, film scripts, songs, and children’s books

- drew on folk songs, folktales, and the rhythms of blues and jazz

- introd. the ‘Blues Stanza’ = any number of stanzas rhymed AAa BBb, incl. a lot of improvisation on the theme of hard life, in the tradition of lamenting and complaining: problematic relationships, alcohol, drugs, etc.

P o e t r y :

The Weary Blues (1926): a coll. of poems celebrating the black culture and jazz music

P r o s e :

Not Without Laughter (1930): a novel on the everyday Af.-Am. life

The Ways of White Folks (1934): a coll. of short stories; admired D. H. Lawrence

‘The Simple Series’:

- incl. Simple Speaks His Mind (1950), Simple Takes a Wife (1952), and The Best of Simple (1961)

- his major work, a series of character vignettes and sketches for a journal

- the central character = the humorous and street-wise Harlem worker Jesse B. Simple comments on contemp. issues, and communicates his opinions to an educated black narrator

I Wonder as I Wander (1956): an autobiog. account of his childhood and travels

D r a m a :

Mulatto (1935): a successful play performed on Broadway

 

C o u n t e e  C u l l e n  ( 1 9 0 3 – 4 6 )

L i f e :

- b. in NY City, adopted by the Methodist Reverend in Harlem, and accepted his name

- received uni education in a primarily white community > lacked his own experience to comment on the lives of oth. Af.-Am. or to use pop. Af.-Am. themes in his writing

- started writing poetry when 14, had his poems publ. in The Crisis, The Opportunity, Poetry, & oth.

- became an assistant ed. of The Opportunity

- befriended with the prominent figures of the HR

W o r k :

Color (1925): his 1^st coll. of poems, publ. the same y. he graduated from college

The Black Christ (1929): a long narrative poem

“Incident”: describes a childhood trip to Baltimore

 

C l a u d e  M c K a y  ( 1 8 8 9 – 1 9 4 8 )

- b. in Jamaica

Songs of Jamaica (1912):

- a coll. of rural poems in an authentic local Jamaican dialect

- a romantic glorification of the soil and the black race

Constab Ballads (1912):

- a coll. of poems in an authentic local dialect

- his own experience as a policeman: city = the symbol of evil, social and moral decay, and racial tensions

Spring in New Hampshire (1920):

- publ. in London when he lived in En.

Harlem Shadows (1922):

- publ. by a national publ.

- a conventional form x but: themes of racial pride, social protest, and occasionally militancy

- the ‘revolutionary sonnets’: “If We Must Die”

Also wrote: pop. fiction, novels, and short stories

 

Z o r a  N e a l e  H u r s t o n  ( c a  1 9 0 1 – 6 0 )

L i f e :

- b. in Eatonville = the 1^st Af.-Am. community attempting an organised self-government – see her Their Eyes Were Watching God

- daughter of travelling preacher > full of anecdotes, humorous tales, and tragicomic stories heard in her childhood

- a flamboyant and charismatic figure, played a major role in the HR

W o r k :

- an anthropologist, folklorist, and fiction writer

- conc.: the move of people from the country to the city, and the strength and wisdom they carry with them in the form of folkways, stories, and music

- POV: so distinctly her own that she seldom pleased anyone entirely, and sometimes no one at all

x but: presented the ‘black people as complete, complex, undiminished human beings’: this POV lacked in Af.-Am. lit.

Mules & Men (1935): a series of anthropological stories of voodoo among the Af.-Am.

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937): a love story set in the Eatonville community

Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939): a re-creation and reinterpretation of the Old Testament Hebrews as characters of Negro folktales

Dust Tracks on the Road (1942): her autobiog., probably her finest novel

 

J e a n  T o o m e r  ( 1 8 9 4 – 1 9 6 7 )

L i f e :

- of mixed racial orig. > preocc. with his ‘racial composition and position’

- married 2x, in both cases to white women, and in the 1^st to a descendant of A. Bradstreet

- thought of as an outstanding example of the ‘New Negro’ in lit. x but: left for Fr. to study phil., reproached for his leaving Harlem by L. Hughes, & oth.

W o r k :

- a poet, fiction writer, playwright, and essayist

- a contr. to the leading Af.-Am. journals The Crisis and Opportunity, and to experimental magazines

Cane (1923):

- an experimental modernist masterpiece

- an intermixture of poetry, prose, and plays

- an obvious inspiration in folk song, folktales, and the Af.-Am. patterns of speech

- a celebration of the physical, psychic, and aesthetic freedom

- concl: the triumph of exotic and primitive impulses over the tyranny of culture

- praised by S. Anderson and H. Crane

Blue Meridian (1936): a long poem trying to find an artistic solution for racial problems