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Female Figures of the Harlem Renaissance
Throughout the tumultuous span of America's existence, perhaps no era in our national history has come to define both the promise of freedom and the tortured path taken to its deliverance than the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century. Inspired by the collective yearning for artistic expression which consumed many newly liberated African-Americans during the heady days of the Reconstruction, the term Harlem Renaissance came to describe a period from 1918 through 1935 in which thousands of former slaves and their descendants migrated from the broken South to the urban centers of the northeastern states. Today modern scholars observe that "as the population of African-Americans rapidly urbanized and its literacy rate climbed, Harlem, New York, the 'Negro capital of America' rose out of the vast relocation" (Lewis, 999) to stand as a monument to the creative and professional heights that were now suddenly in reach for nearly half of the county's population. Although relatively brief when compared to other transformative artistic ages, the Harlem Renaissance produced a wealth of invaluable contributions from novelists and essayists, poets and playwrights. While today thoughts of the Harlem Renaissance invariably conjure images...
Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, writers like Langston Hughes, and even detractors such as Booker T. Washington, it can be argued that female figures played an even greater role in the overall movement. Women like Nella Larsen, Regina Anderson, and A'Lelia Walker epitomize the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance, forced to endure two forms of oppression and half of the opportunity afforded to their male counterpart while courageously contributing their ideas and inspirations to a wary world.
Penned and published in 1928, Nella Larsen's largely autobiographical novel Quicksand has been hailed as "a triumph of vivid yet economical writing and rich allegory," and the fact that "its very modern heroine experiences misfortunes and ultimate destruction from causes that are both racial and individual" (Lewis, 1004) represents a reflection of the author's unique position as a female African-American artist. Having worked previously in the field of nursing, reaching the position of head nurse at the prestigious Tuskegee Institute's hospital, and as a librarian within the New York Public Library, Larsen embodied the ideal of independence and ambition which eventually became a hallmark of the Harlem Renaissance. Although her literary output was…
Works Cited
Darity, William A., Jr. "Harlem Renaissance." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2008. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. p424-426.
Lewis, David Levering. "Harlem Renaissance." Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Ed. Colin A. Palmer. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2006. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. p998-1018.
Morgan, Barbara. "Anderson, Regina M. (1901 -- 1993)." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Ed. Anne Commire. Vol. 1. Detroit: Yorkin Publications, 2002. 313-314. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Sep. 2012.
Stolba, Christine. "Women of the Harlem Renaissance." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Ed. Anne Commire. Vol. 16. Detroit: Yorkin Publications, 2002. 711-722. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 14 Sep. 2012.
First she moved back to northern Florida to Jacksonville. Stymied there, Augusta Savage moved to New York City. Her move paralleled that of many other Harlem Renaissance figures, who migrated to the northern American city in search of greater opportunities for financial and personal growth. In 1921, Augusta enrolled in a free art program at Cooper Union in New York City. The course helped her acquire formal training for
Their main arguments are based on historical assumptions and on facts which have represented turning points for the evolution of the African-American society throughout the decades, and especially during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. In this regard, the Old Negro, and the one considered to be the traditional presence in the Harlem, is the result of history, and not of recent or contemporary events. From the point-of-view of
This renunciation, depending on one's perspective, represents either a willful act of sacrifice or a selfish act of disobedience. Sandra Pouchet Paquet, however, frames this problematic deed in neutral terms in her analysis of the text, which focuses on its ambivalence toward the role of ancestral knowledge in identity formation. Paquet (2009) asserts that Janie "repudiates the values of her surrogate parents in her conscious quest for selfhood" (p.501).
Some artists, such as Aaron Douglas, captured the feeling of Africa in their work because they wanted to show their ancestry through art. Others, like Archibald J. Motley Jr., obtained their inspiration from the surroundings in which they lived in; where jazz was at the forefront and African-Americans were just trying to get by day-to-day like any other Anglo-American. Additionally, some Black American artists felt more comfortable in Europe
E. women) (Millay 1611, lines 4, 2). But although the first and most commonly used definition of zest is "keen relish; hearty enjoyment; gusto," the word can also refer to "liveliness or energy; animating spirit" (dictionary.com). Taken this way, the seemingly passive and accepting sexuality seen in the beginning of he poem is disingenuous and even coy. This interpretation is borne out by another structural details of the poem --
The gothic elements in the novel serve to portray even better the squalor and the fierceness of the environment in which they were impelled to live. Even though Harlem was an African-American community, the life of the black woman was by no means improved by this fact. The place itself was degenerate and full of crime and as such, it did not offer any protection. All this was due