The Harlem Renaissance

1
The Harlem Renaissance

• Early 1920s

2
The Harlem Renaissance

• Cultural movement that applies to African
  American art, literature, and music (jazz).
• Migration of African Americans to the North after
  WWI (specifically Harlem neighborhoods of New
  York)
• Renaissance rebirth or revival
• European Renaissance (1300 1600) - rebirth of
  the Golden Age (architecture, science, and fine
  art)
• America was developing a new respect for African
  American culture thanks in part to its reflection
  in the work of modernist artists Pablo Picasso
  and Georges Braque.

3
The Harlem Renaissance

• Literature during the Harlem Renaissance
• Newspapers and journals began publishing the work
  of both new and established African American
  writers.
• Some literature focused entirely on black
  characters, while others explored relationships
  among people of different races.
• Some writers attacked the idea of racism, while
  others attacked issues within black communities.
• A result of African American writing black
  dialects were as legitimate as standard English.

4
The Harlem Renaissance

• Impact of the Great Depression
• By the early 1930s, the Great Depression had
  depleted many of the funds that had provided
  financial support to individual African American
  writers, institutions, etc.
• Nevertheless, African American culture had been
  forever changed.

5
The Harlem Renaissance

• African American authors for this class
• Countee Cullen
• Langston Hughes
• Zora Neale Hurston
• Others that are well known
• Alice Walker
• Toni Morrison
• Maya Angelou
• James Baldwin

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Countee Cullen

• 1903 1946
• Grew up in NYC adopted by a Rev.
  and his wife
• First collection of poems published in college
• Caroling Dusk (collection of poems) was a
  significant contribution to the Harlem
  Renaissance
• However, the introduction was controversial it
  called for black poets to write traditional verse
  and to avoid the restrictions of solely racial
  themes.
• His verse was heavily influenced by the poetry of
  the English Romantics (John Keats).
• Thought of himself primarily as a lyric poet in
  the Romantic tradition, not as a black poet
  writing about social and racial themes.
• However, he found himself drawn to these themes.

7
Langston Hughes

• 1902 1967
• Began writing poems in the 8th grade, and
  publishing
  them in high school.
• Walt Whitman had a significant impact on Hughes
• Both poets broke from traditional poetic forms,
  and used free verse to express the humanity of
  all people regardless of their age, gender, race,
  or class.
• Hughes celebrated the experiences of African
  Americans, often using jazz rhythms and the
  repetitive structure of the blues in his poems.
• Also, wrote poems specifically for jazz
  accompaniment
• Hughes was responsible for the founding of
  several black theatre companies (while writing
  and translating dramatic works).
• Hughes explained that His work was to explain
  and illuminate the Negro condition in America.

8
Zora Neale Hurston

• 1891 1960
• Born in Alabama / grew up in Florida
• Father was a preacher / mother was a
  schoolteacher
• Felt their daughter was very talented, and urged
  her to
  jump at the sun
• At 9 years old, her mother died, and Hurston was
  passed among several relatives and family friends
  (supported herself from her early teen years on).
  
• Published her first story in college
• Eventually travelled to NY, with only 1.50 in
  her pocket, and found herself amidst the Harlem
  Renaissance.
• Began writing stories and plays to celebrate her
  heritage.
• Her most famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching
  God (1937)
• Story of a young African American woman who
  strikes out for a life beyond a conventional
  marriage (such as Hurston herself had done).
• Dust Tracks on a Road an autobiography