Literature and Identity in the Harlem Renaissance

Introduction

The Harlem Renaissance is also known as the period of renaissance and development of Black art and writing in the United States. Literature was used as a means of promoting and projecting the realities of social oppression that African Americans felt at the time. It was also one of the modes of expression used to articulate the complex emotions that many African Americans felt in an oppressive society. On a related level, the Harlem Renaissance was, in essence, a search for identity and meaning, as well as an expression of the cultural roots of Black people in the United States. There were a number of writers and artists who became famous as propagandists of the search for Black identity and meaning. One of the most well-known was Langston Hughes, whose poetry will be discussed as a central example of the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.

In order to understand the Harlem Renaissance, one has to understand the underlying vigor, hope, and dynamism that formed a major part of the search for the self and Black identity as manifested by the artists, writers, and poets of that period. The following quotation illustrates the atmosphere of this Renaissance, which took place during the 1920s and 1930s, when jazz and blues became an integral part of American culture and there was a sense of cultural integration and interaction between different racial groups forming a unified American identity. It was a time of the "new urban Negro":

…when speakeasies were filled with both blacks and whites dancing to the "rhythms of life" set out by the saxophone, trumpet, and drums; when the "New Negro" was setting his mark in politics, art, literature, music, science, the social sciences, and every aspect of American life into which he could win his way; when the industrial North seemed to call forth African Americans out of the agrarian South and when the African Americans responded to the call in droves, fleeing the violence and racism of the KKK and lynch law and the abject poverty of sharecropping; when it seemed as if the urban North, in cities like New York, Chicago, and Detroit, was a place where the American Negro could finally find respite from racial prejudice, could finally hold a decent job with decent pay, could finally become an unharassed property owner, and could finally go out dancing Saturday night without fear of having men in white sheets shatter his fun. (The Harlem Renaissance)

The Meaning of the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a focal point of the aspirations and dreams of the African American people to throw off the perceptions and biases of the past. The Renaissance, from a literary and artistic point of view, was the resurgence of expressive capabilities unique to the Black people of the country.

Another important aspect of this Renaissance was the search for cultural identity and liberty from the restrictive norms and values that had been imposed on Black people in the United States. There was a strong and urgent movement within the literature of the Harlem Renaissance toward a sense of historical and cultural roots or heritage. If the writing of Hughes and others is to be seen as "propagandist," then the aim of this propaganda was to awaken American society and the world to the rich history and heritage of all Black people. It is therefore important to note that the Renaissance was more than just a literary movement. One of its central purposes was to exalt and publicize the "unique culture of African Americans" (The Harlem Renaissance 2).

Another aspect that bears on understanding what the writers of the Harlem Renaissance intended to convey can be seen in the "notion of twoness." This concept was introduced by W.E.B. Du Bois early in the twentieth century to express the essential division that Black people felt within themselves. On the one hand, they were Americans; on the other, they belonged to an extensive African cultural heritage. Black people in America were seen as having a divided sense of identity that needed to be resolved into a new and more integrated perception of what it meant to be Black. This sense of inner division and the search for integration of the self — both psychologically and socially — was one of the central aims of the Black writers and poets of the time: "One ever feels his two-ness — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled stirrings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder" (Reuben P.).

There were writers at that time, such as Jean Toomer, who inspired many others with his portrayal of Black life in the novel Cane (1923). "Cane describes people frustrated by their conflicts with social customs and by psychological conflicts within themselves" (The Literature of the Harlem Renaissance). Many other famous writers were involved in the Harlem Renaissance, including Zora Neale Hurston and Countee Cullen. However, possibly the most well-known was Langston Hughes, and a brief analysis of some of his poetry provides an overview of how literature was used as a means of cultural expression and advocacy during this period.

Langston Hughes is often referred to as the Poet Laureate — or Shakespeare — of the Negro Race. He was also one of the main artists responsible for the development of African American literature and was a chief exponent of the ideals of the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry is representative of a period that saw cultural growth and expansion in consciousness, along with an increasing engagement with questions of Black identity in the United States. The way in which Hughes used literature to promote and convey the African American search for identity and meaning is expressed in the style, rhythms, and content of his work.

As noted above, one of the central concerns of the Harlem Renaissance, beyond the question of racial prejudice, was identity. One of Hughes's most anthologized poems, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," attempts to describe this search for identity and the depth of heritage that belonged to the American Negro.

In the opening line of the poem, the poet explores the deep African roots that provide the link to his origins. The essential atmosphere and imagery refer to time and the depth of historic ages. The river, as a symbol of enduring generations, draws the reader back to the origins of the African people — back to the very geographic past of Africa itself.

The protagonist states, "I have known rivers." This direct statement is important in context: it implies that the speaker's origins are as old as the oldest rivers in the world, conveying respect and pride in the African heritage that forms part of his identity. The word "known" refers to genealogy and racial history — a knowledge that is deep and extends far beyond ordinary everyday understanding. The river is also a symbol of passing and enduring time, as well as an implied reference to the transmission of knowledge and culture across countless generations. The sense of the rich and extensive history of Black people in Africa is powerfully suggested throughout the poem:

I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow
of human blood in human veins.

The poem also implies that the Negro man, inheritor of this ancient heritage, deserves respect within any society. The dignity of his heritage demands justice and equality with any other nation or race. In the final line — "My soul has grown deep like the rivers" — the protagonist establishes the richness of his cultural heritage as the foundation of his contemporary identity. His "soul" has "grown," implying that as a modern Black man he is enriched by the vast wealth of his cultural background, and that this proud tradition provides him with stability and meaning in the modern world.

Black identity is a pervasive theme throughout Hughes's work. In another poem, "Theme for English B," Hughes explores the experience of growing up in a racially divided society and the questioning of one's place and personal identity within it. The central themes address the search for identity, the racial divide and problems of communication, and the challenge of resolving racial inequality.

Conclusion

The Harlem Renaissance. University of North Carolina. April 12, 2004.

The Harlem Renaissance (2). April 17, 2005.

The Literature of the Harlem Renaissance. April 16, 2005.