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The Harlem Renaissance and its Effect on African American Literature Thesis: The literary movement during the Harlem Renaissance was a raging fire that brought about new life for the African American writer; its flame still burns today through the writings of contemporary African American writers. I. The Harlem Renaissance- Its Beginning and Development II. The Major Writers A. Claude McKay B. Jean Toomer C. Countee Cullen D. Langston Hughes E. Zora Neale Hurston III. Major Themes of Writing during the Harlem Renaissance A.
The effort to recapture the African American past and African Heritage B. Life in Harlem C. Racism IV. The Harlem Renaissance ??? The Era Comes to a Close V. The Influence on Contemporary African American Writing A. Toni Cade Bambara B. Darryl Pinckney C. D. VI. The Fire of the Renaissance has become the Flame Janie Paige Ms. Robinson English Composition ENG-1123 30 July 2008 The Harlem Renaissance and its Effect on African American Literature An outburst of creative activity among African Americans occurred in all fields of art between 1920 and 1930.
The place was Harlem in New York City and the people were African Americans who came from the South looking for a better way of life. What they found was new, exciting and wonderful. They found Duke Ellington and Lena Horne playing and singing sounds of soulful jazz. The brilliant art of William H. Johnson could be seen with colorful scenes of the rural South. This African-American cultural movement became known as “The New Negro Movement” and later as the Harlem Renaissance. Although it was short lived the Harlem Renaissance changed the face of black America forever.
The literary movement during the Harlem Renaissance was a raging fire that brought about new life for the African American writer; its flame still burns today through the writings of contemporary African American writers. What occurred to bring about the Harlem Renaissance? Why were African Americans looking for a better way of life? The African American was originally from Africa and was brought to this land called America as slaves. African American men, women, and children were not free and were treated as objects or high price merchandise.
The life of a salve was hard and cruel. This way of life lasted for many years. In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared that slavery was illegal in the United States. The American Civil War, a war in which a few Southern states were unwilling to end slavery, came to a conclusion in 1865. ” Between 1865 and 1877, during a period called the Reconstruction, the U. S. government tried to help the Southern states recover from wartime devastation and make the transition from slave to paid labor on farms and plantations” (Howes 6).
For the African American freedom was welcomed but with this freedom came other hardships. In the South a system of legalized segregation was formed and African Americans were denied many privileges that whites enjoyed. African Americans were denied privileges such as attending the same schools with whites, using the same public facilities, or eating in the same restaurants with whites. In many states they were not allowed to vote. Whites resented African Americans and violence was rampant. African Americans were lynched (hanged without a trial) and often the law looked the other way.
Social conditions promoted large numbers of African Americans to leave their rural homes in the South in search of better lives. Many headed for New York, fleeing the aftermath of race riots over segregation, employment discrimination and equal rights that broke out in several cities. “The United States entered World War I in 1917. The need to produce weapons and equipment for the war effort, as well as the flood of young men joining the armed services, led to a great demand for workers in northern industrial cities” (Howes 8).
Although many African Americans served in the war there were some who felt that they should not sacrifice their lives for a country that did not treat them equally as whites. African Americans serving in the war over seas were exposed to many cultures. This exposure made many African Americans less willing to put up with mistreatment and injustice in the United States. Among those willing to speak out against the treatment of African Americans was W. E. B. Du Bois (NAACP), Alain Locke (The New Negro), Marcus Garvey (Negro World), and James Weldon Johnson (NAACP). The Harlem Renaissance grew out of the changes that had taken place in the black community since the abolition of slavery, and which had been accelerated as a consequence of the First World War and the great social and cultural change taking place in America in the early 20th century under the influence of industrialization and the emergence of a new mass culture” (Harlem Renaissance). “Among those who were attracted to the material advantages, community spirit, and exciting atmosphere of Harlem were African American intellectuals, writers, musicans, and artists” (Howes 13).
No singal event started the Halem Renaissance but the credit for the Renaissance’s brith has been given to three events: a dinner hosted by Charles S. Johnson in 1924 to bring recognization to new literary talent in the African American community, the publication of Nigger Heaven by white novelist Carl Van Vechten in 1926, and the production of a literary magazine, Fire!!! by a young group of African American writers also in 1926 (Wintz 12-14). The Harlem Renaissance appealed to a mixed audience.
Diversity flourished in the performing arts as well as in music, literature, and art. “By the time the novels, poetry, and dramas of the Harlem Renaissance were being recognized, African American music had already gained fame worldwide. Jazz and blues provided the background, the spirit, and the style for the achievements of the period’s literary and visual artists” (Howes 81). In every movement there are those who are called front runners or foundation layers. These individuals pave the way for others to follow and so it was with the Halrem Renaissance. Contrary to popular belief, the Harlem Renaissance did not emerge out of a literary and cultural wasteland” (Brown pg 9). The writers of the Renaissance dealt with African American life from a African American perspective. The first important writer of the Renaissance was Claude McKay (1889-1948), who was born in Jamaica and came to the United States in 1912. McKay is best remembered for his poems treating racial themes. “His novel Home to Harlem became the first best seller by an African American author and he received the Harmon Foundation’s gold medal for literature (Howes 48). Jean Toomer (1894-1967) was the second most important writer of the Renaissance and one of the most gifted in modern American letters” (Whitlow 80). After a visit to Georgia in 1921, Toomer wrote his most masterful work entitled Cane. Cane is Jean Toomer’s acclaimed exploration of the American racial temperament of the 1920s. Using his own life as a model, Toomer explores the issues of race and identity that simmer just below the fragile American social veneer. Organized in three sections, these stories and vignettes are also interspersed with poetry.
Toomer’s brilliant interweaving of black folk culture within themes of miscegenation, black sexuality, and racial identity and conflict turned this novel into a literary high point (Bontemps iv) Countee Cullen, born Countee LeRoy Porter was one of the leading African American poets of his time. “Countee was abandoned by his parents at birth. He was raised by his grandmother, Mrs. Porter who died in 1918. Cullen was subsequently adopted by Reverend Frederick Ashbury Cullen, minister at Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in Harlem” (Countee Cullen).
Cullen won more major literary prizes than any other black writer of the 1920s. If any event signaled the coming of the Harlem Renaissance, it was the precocious success of this rather shy black boy who, more than any other black literary figure of his generation, was being touted and bred to become a major crossover literary figure. Here was a black man with considerable academic training who could, in effect, write “white” verse-ballads, sonnets, quatrains, and the like–much in the manner of Keats nd the British Romantics, (albeit, on more than one occasion, tinged with racial concerns) with genuine skill and compelling power. He was certainly not the first Negro to attempt to write such verse but he was first to do so with such extensive education and with such a complete understanding of himself as a poet (Andrews, Foster, and Harris 268). The most influential African American poet of the 1920s would prove to be Langston Hughes, called the Poet Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes became the first African American writer to support hmself by his writings alone.
He produced more than 60 books of poetry, plays, novels, and nonfiction and eraned the praise of critics for his realistic portayal of black characters “Songs of the Soul”. James Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in February 1902. Hughes published the first of his signature poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” in Crisis magazine in 1921. Ironically, despite his extraordinary literary output, Hughes lived in poverty for most of his life. “His literary works helped shape American literature and politics.
He promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children’s books” (Wintz 19). Although she did not produce a full-length novel until after the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston attracted a lot of attention with her short fiction. She is best remembered for Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is now viewed as a masterpiece of African American literature. “In 1925, Hurston produced the short-lived literary magazine Fire!! long with Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman. This literary movement became the center of the Harlem Renaissance” (Howes 47). Many readers objected to the representation of African American dialect in Hurston’s novels. Her stylistic choices in terms of dialogue were influenced by her academic experiences. Some critics during her time felt that Hurston’s decision to render language in this way caricature African American culture. In more recent times, however, critics have praised Hurston for her artful capture of the actual spoken idiom of the day (Zora Neale Hurston).
The character of the Renaissance was set by several themes emerging during this time. “The early part of the Harlem Renaissance literary movement was initiated by the ‘Talented Tenth,’ an elite group of well-educated black professionals who argued that the mission of establishing black identity and thus gaining social acceptance and economic and political stability would be vitally strengthened through arts and letters” (Karsten). W. E. B. DuBois urged Afican Americns to return to their roots and to rise to greatness. Marcus Gravey energized the feelings of black people and led a ‘back to Africa’ movement.
In 1914 he organized the Univeral Negro Improvement Association “Songs of the Soul”. In The New Negro Alain Locke’s belief that African American dramatists, artists, and writers should look to their African heritage for sources of inspiration. The heritage of African Americans was reflected in novels by Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston. Jacob Lawrence referred to African American history for much of his work. He painted the Harriet Tubman series. Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen addressed their African heritage in many of their works.
The heart and soul of the African American was seen and felt in the many forms throughout Harlem. Harlem with its jazzy clubs, bright lights, and rich literature was a place of refuge for many. The sights and sounds of Harlem drew the upper class blacks as well as the common laborer. Harlem’s thriving nightlife met controversy as well as embracement. Langston Hughes referred to it often in his work while others scorned it or did not mention it. Harlem was noted for its nightlife. “The working class could find jazz and a good drink at A’Lelia Walker’s Dark Tower” (Howes 126).
The Savoy Ballroom was a glamorous club where whites gathered to mingle with the blacks who could afford it. Partying was not the only things that happen in the wee early morning hours in Harlem. The Harlem Market at 3 A. M. was alive with bright lights and people. There were baskets of fruit and crates of fresh vegetables. It is a part of New York little known and seldom seen by any persons other than those who make their living there. The largest and most profitable profession indulged in by the African American women in Harlem was the beauty shops.
Harlem was a city within a city. The Urban League and the NAACP’s headquarters were located in Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance was more than a literary movement and more than a social revolt against racism, the Harlem Renaissance exalted the matchless culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American. “James Weldon Johnson became the first black head of the NAACP in 1920” (Howes 17). The literature of the Renaissance explored race in America. Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die” was among the best of this genre” (Wintz 17). Among the visual artists, Jacob Lawrence’s historical series emphasized the racial struggle that dominated African American history” (Wintz 18). The struggle against lynching in the mid-1920s stimulated anti lynching poetry as well as Walter White’s carefully researched study of the subject, Rope and Faggot; in the early 1930s the Scottsboro incident stimulated considerable protest writing. Racism were sharp and strong during the Renaissance though there some whites that assisted by providing finances and aiding in the publishing of African American works.
Writers of the Renaissance relied heavily on white publishing houses and white-owned magazines. The Stocket Market Crash that begun on October 24, 1929 was not only devesting for the finacinal world it was also one of the factors that brought an end to the Harlem Renaissance. Those who onced were regular vistors and spenders in Harlem now found other uses for their money. Publishers were no longer accepting the works of literary writers, actors began to go hungery. The Great Depression took its economic tool.
The NAACP and Urban League, which had promoted the Renassiance, shifted their interests to economic and social issues. Influential black writers and literary promoters left New York City. The cultural life of Harlem, once so vibrant, joyous, and creative, seemed to fade slowly into poverty and bleakness. The lights, sounds, and rhytms that once drew thousands to Harlem were slowly dying and the Renaissance was without its heartbeat. It has been said “that all good things must come to an end”. So it was with the Harlem Renaissance.
The book which contained its pages of days with bright lights, smooth music, and brilliant art work and wonderful literary has been closed. The book may have been closed but the story is still remembered. The influence of the Harlem Renaissance is very prominent in the contemporary African American writers of today. One such writer is Toni Cade Bambara. Toni Cade Bambara was born Miltona Mirkin Cade on March 25, 1939. Bambara participated in several community and activist organizations, and her work was influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements of the 1960s. Bambara published in the 1960s, but she did not commit to serious writing until the 1970s. Considered one of the best African American short story writers, her first collection, Gorilla, My Love, was published in 1972″ (Toni Cade Bambara). Her style which consits of African American cultural conventions, incorporating African American dialect, oral traditions, and jazz techniques are some of the traits of the Halrem Renaissance writers. Her mother urged her to take pride in African American cutlure and history which was another characteristic that the Renaissacne writers proposed.
Another African American writer influenced by the Harlem Renaissance is Darryl Pickney. Darryl Pinckney’s writing has been recognized for its ties to the African-American literary past. “Darryl Pinckney is best-known for High Cotton his semi-autobiographical satirical novel about growing up Black in America in the 1960s. The book explores a sheltered, educated Black man’s encounters with the world of White society, as well as his participation in the Civil Rights Movement and his complicated love-hate relationship with Black Nationalism” (Darryl Pinckney).
Pinckney’s essays and novels have an undertone of the Harlem Renaissance in that he writes about African American’s treatment by white America and the desire for a better way of life. Another The Harlem Renaissance marked a turning point for African American literature. “The Harlem Renaissance changed forever the dynamics of African-American arts and literature in the United States. The influence of the Harlem Renaissance themes and the richness of African American culture has also been expressed through new media, as is seen in the films of director Spike Lee” (Harlem Renaissance).
Publishers and readers are more open to African American literature than ever before. Many African Americans discovered that the Harlem Renaisance was proof that white writers did not hold a monopoly on literature and culture. Alice Walker and Toni Morrison writers of the 1980s and 1990s have their roots in the writing of the Harlem Renaissance. The raging fire that began in Harlem and burned though the hearts of readers, music listeners, and the world of art still burns today. The fire may have decreaesed with the end of the Harlem Renaissance era but the flame is alive today in the pens of many African American contemporary writers. Toni Cade Bambara. ” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 8 Jul 2008, 05:20 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 Jul 2008 <http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Toni_Cade_Bambara&oldid=224293405>. Howes, Kelly King. Harlem Renaissance. New York: Gale Group, 2001. 3. Bontemps, Arna. Introduction. Cane. Jean Toomer. New York: Liveright Publishers, 1969, originally published 1923. iv. Whitlow, Roger. Black American Literature. Illinois: Nelson Hall, 1973. 53. “Harlem Renaissance. ” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 11 Jul 2008, 15:14 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 1 Jul 2008 <http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Harlem_Renaissance&oldid=225028378>. Wintz, Carl D. Harlem Speaks. Naperville: Sourcebooks, 2007. 12-14. Brown, Lois. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Hermitage, 2006. 9. Karsten, Jayne. Drop Me Off in Harlem: Exploring the Intersections, from the Education Department at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts . 22 Jul 2008. http://artsedge. kennedy-center. org/exploring/harlem/faces/locke_text. html Byrd, Frank. “American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1940” .
American History, New York, 22 Jul 2008. <http://memory. loc. gov/cgi-bin/quorylr? ammem/wpa:@field (DOCID+ (wpa221011201)) “Countee Cullen. ” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 13 Jul 2008, 06:13 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 Jul 2008 <http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Countee_Cullen&oldid=225350 625>. Andrews, William; Frances Smith Foster; Trudier Harris. The concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York: oxford UP, 2001. “Songs of the soul: the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1935 – Special Report – Statistical Data Included”.
Current Events. Feb 8, 2002. FindArticles. com. 21 Jul. 2008. http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_18_101/ai_82650370 Zora Neale Hurston. ” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 14 Jul 2008, 01:08 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 Jul 2008 <http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Zora_Neale_Hurston&oldid=225502959>. “Darryl Pickney”. New York State Writers Institute State Universoty of New York. 5 Dedember 2007. 29 Jul 2008 http://www. albany. edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/dpinckney. html