Langston, in his commentary, sought to point out that the Negro condition was crucial to their development as artists. "We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame." (Hughes). In this declaration, one does not detect racial pride or bitterness, but rather, a tender plea for the right to create art without being judged by society as vulgar or threatening.
Hughes viewed negro art before the Harlem Renaissance as restricted by shame of their unique cultural features as negro, so foreign to Western art at the time, and fear of the scorn they would receive from the public and their peers if this negro culture ever were to leak out in their art. (Hughes). ecause of these self-imposed restraints, negro art was missing the passionate, unself-conscious desire for self-expression which is so vital to art.
Harlem Renaissance was a noteworthy era in human history that was triggered immediately after the upheaval of World War 1. It is largely characterized as a period in which African-Americans searched for greater self-actualization, and struggled for racial equality in an America drowned in ethnic bias. The lack community deemed it absolutely necessary to realize their dreams of a world with no prejudice and equitable opportunities in all walks of life. Political and economic movements reigned supreme and many iconic personalities lent their philosophies to the cause of lack Pride. As the lack community resorted to articulating their tumultuous views through art and literature, many specific ideologies sprang up through names such as W.E.. Du ois and James Weldon Johnson. The result was an aesthetic tide of expression that changed the face of America for all times to come. Many instances of heart wrenching tales and poems can be found,…...
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Bibliography
Gifford, Nina. "The Harlem Renaissance." America's History in the Making: Oregon Public Broadcasting (n.d.).
McWhorter, John H. "Double Consciousness in Black America." CATO Policy Report XXV No. 2 (2003).
Poetry Foundation. Claude McKay 1889-1948. .
Poets.org: From The Academy of American Poets. Langston Hughes. 2012. .
Harlem Renaissance
The Southern Roots of Harlem Renaissance
The African-American artistic, literary, and intellectual self-development, known as the Harlem Renaissance, is one of the most important and pivotal moments in the history of African-Americans -- and that of the United States in general. The Harlem Renaissance greatly influenced African-Americans' perception of who they were, their roles in American society, and their place within the racialized society dominated by Whites. The Renaissance movement, however, did not start out of nothing. What happened in Harlem in the 1920s and '30s was the result of a series of socio-economic and political events that preceded it. Among the most important events that contributed to the emergence of the African-American Renaissance movement in Harlem was the great migration from the South. The failure of the post-Emancipation reconstruction in the South forced many African-Americans out of Southern states to the North where industrial boom required cheap labor. Many…...
Harlem Renaissance- Literature and Art
The Harlem or Negro Renaissance marked the 20s and 30s as a period where the spirituality and potential of the African-American community was expressed in the most explosive way possible. lack art had been relatively unknown to the American public until then, at least to the urban communities. Centered in the Southern states and with a freedom of expression generally trampled with, black art expression was simply censored or manifested itself in its raw forms. The migration to the Northern metropolis after the First World War was similar and implied the development, in all its forms, of lack culture. This included literature (poetry and prose), music (jazz played in the notorious Cotton Club and elsewhere), visual arts (painting) and acting in musicals.
Langston Hughes, one of the most representative creators of the Harlem Renaissance, best resumed this period as being a period when "Negro was in vogue."…...
Harlem Renaissance is also known as the period of renaissance and development of lack 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. Literature was also one of the modes of expression that was 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, the search for identity and meaning as well as for the expression of cultural roots of lack people in the United States. There were a number of writers and artists who became famous as propagandists of the search for lack identity and meaning. One of the most well-known was Langston Hughes, whose poetry will be discussed as an example of the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.
The meaning of the Harlem Renaissance.
Harlem enaissance
There were many influential people that changed the shape of American culture during the Harlem enaissance. Among them included Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. These two individuals were responsible for much of the ideology of the Harlem enaissance. Another key person responsible for the Harlem enaissance this paper will review was Hubert Harrison, who was often referred to as the "Father of Harlem adicalism." He found the Liberty League, and the Voice, an organization and the first newspaper of what was referred to as the "New Negro Movement.
Booker T. Washington was among many things an educator, speaker, American author and lead politician; he was a representative of great American leaders that was among the last politicians to speak out against slavery, and among blacks that still did not have the right to vote. Washington had much support among white politicians, religious organizations, educational institutions and many other…...
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References:
Asante, M.K. 2002. 100 greatest African-Americans: A biographical encyclopedia. Amherst,
NY. Prometheus Books.
Norrell, R.J. 2009. Up from history: The life of Booker T. Washington. Belknap Press/Harvard
Ostrom, H. & Macey, D. 2005. The Greenwood encyclopedia of African-American literature.
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 her future career, and Savage washed laundry to earn a living.
In spite of her tremendous efforts, Savage met with serious obstacles because of her race, poverty, and correspondingly low social status. She applied and was accepted to a summer art program in France. The French government turned her away "because of her color," ("Augusta Fells Savage"). Savage used the incident to draw attention to the issue of racism. She therefore contributed to the growing awareness of the systematic oppression of…...
Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes and his "Refugee in America," and Zora Neale Hurston and her "The Eatonville Anthology." Specifically, it will relate the thoughts of these two writers to the statement by .E.B. Du Bois in "The Souls of Black Folk." "It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others...One ever feels his two-ness...An American, a Negro."
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Zora Neale Hurston's "The Eatonville Anthology" is a delightful account of the small Florida town of Eatonville and its colorful residents. Each short vignette discusses a different resident of the town, seen through the eyes of the narrator. Hurston is literally showing the reader the entire town as if the reader were a voyeur, standing back and watching, never seen. This is exactly what Du Bois speaks about in his quote regarding double consciousness, and Hurston vividly illustrates it here.…...
Modernism and Harlem enaissance
The Modernist Movement
Modernism during the early part of the 20th century was a recognition of power in the human heart and mind ot make, improve, and reshape the environment (History of Visual Communication, 2012). This reshaping process was made possible with the assistance of science, technology, and experimentation. In addition to the political and cultural implications of this recognition, this reshaping process also manifested itself in the artistic movements of Western society. Particularly, it was a movement that encompassed European-born art and culture, while at the same time attempting to create something alternative, new, and indeed "modern" in response to the artistic and cultural movements that have prevailed to date. The movement embraced change and the present in rebellion against the academic and historicist traditions of the late 19th century. Instead, the movement sought to embrace the new economic, social, and political realities of the world it…...
20th Century
he Harlem Renaissance was an important aspect of American history and to African-American history specifically. he Harlem Renaissance took place during the first few decades of the 20th century, particularly after the first world war. hough it is named after Harlem, an area of New York City, Manhattan island, the spirit of this artistic, literary and cultural expansion spread across the United States and Europe. Some of the most prominent members of the Harlem Renaissance traveled and flourished in Europe, then returned to the states to rejuvenate and invigorate the African-American community and in turn American culture. Major participants were novelists, musicians, poets, dancers, singers, and political leaders. Some of the noted participants of the Harlem Renaissance include W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Dorothy West, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and many more.
he benefactors began as the African-American community. he…...
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The poem "Let America be American Again" by Langston Hughes is a poetic and social commentary of the presence of blacks in America. The poem is an eloquent commentary on the discrepancy between the mythology of the American experience and the reality of the American experience, especially from a perspective outside of the white, wealthy, male majority/power structure. Hughes does reference the experience of the poor, ethnic minorities of all kinds, and references a simpler, more wholesome time in America when there was more hope and real potential for equity.
If I were twenty years old during 1942 and was a Japanese-American, I imagine I would live with my family in a major or at least large city on the west coast of the United States. Perhaps I lived with my family in San Francisco, where there is one of the largest Asian communities in the U.S.A. Many Japanese-Americans at the time owned small and productive businesses, as well as worked in important parts of the community as civil servants in some fashion. Perhaps I would help my father in his paper store and helped my mother in her flower shop. Japan is well-known for their interest and flair for paper and ikebana is a very long tradition in Japanese culture (flower arranging). Therefore, this hypothetical family life is plausible. I would likely also assist in raising any younger siblings, cousins, and extended family members. I would lead a simple life and support my new country as many Japanese-Americans did and still do. If requested to serve in the armed forces during WWII, I think I would reluctantly participate. I would participate because it is my new country even though I would be fighting against my countrymen, but with the threat of Japanese-American internment, I would do what I was asked to do, no more and no less. I may have to make some difficult choices, but this is part of the life of immigrants to America -- they are always tied to and caught between where they come from and where they are.
The rise of conservative politics in the 1980s & 1990s in the U.S.A. was a reaction to the political and economic activities/trends of prior decades, specifically the 1960s and 1970s. The American people were displeased with the conflict in Vietnam. They were highly disappointed with the behavior and the general presidency of Richard Nixon. Upper and middle class white men argued that they were victims of reverse discrimination because of legislation put in place to support the presence of women and minorities in institutions of higher learning and various, if not all industries in the workforce. This period saw a rise in televangelism and increased tensions of the Cold War. The 1980s in America were the Reagan years and the early 1990s were one set of Bush years. Both men had conservative administrations that washed over this period of conservatism as well.
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…...
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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.
ashington was not afraid to appeal to intelligence. He was also a great believer in hope. ashington lived to see his world change in incredible ways and while he did not know if he would see reconciliation, he believed it would happen anyway. He wrote, "The great human law that in the end recognizes and rewards merit is everlasting and universal" (318). Here we the true definition of hope as it extends from one individual to all of mankind.
The writers of the Harlem Renaissance are especially important because they capture the essence of what most African-Americans were feeling at a time of turmoil. Art has a way of accomplishing many things. It can express ideas and it can open eyes. Through art, people can learn about others and begin to understand more of their fellow men. Fiction has a way of opening up the lives of others. hen people…...
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Works Cited
DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. Bartleby Online. Information Retrieved August 4,
2009. Print.
Davis, Arthur P. "Langston Hughes: Cool Poet." Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism.
Vol. 4. New York: Chelsea House Publisher. 1986. Print.
Aron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance is the term given to a period in American history where a new focus on the African-American experience emerged. This emergence began in the Harlem region of New York.
It was a time when African-American artists began to express their culture and at this time in history there came a new focus on the African-American artist and African-American Art.
The Harlem Renaissance has been described as "a cultural and psychological watershed, an era in which black people were perceived as having finally liberated themselves from a past fraught with self-doubt and surrendered instead to an unprecedented optimism, a novel pride in all things black and a cultural confidence that stretched beyond the borders of Harlem to other black communities in the Western world" (Powelland).
This Renaissance extended to all areas of the arts including painting, singing and performing. What was similar about these…...
Carl Van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten was a white man with a zeal for blackness who had a fundamental role to play in aiding the Harlem Renaissance, which was a movement shepherded by the blacks, come to understand itself. Van Vechten played a pivotal role in the Harlem Renaissance and aided in bringing increased clearness and transparency to the African American movement. Nonetheless, for an extensive period of time, he was perceived as a controversial figure. The main objective of this essay is to write out a descriptive annotated bibliography on Carl Van Vechten and the influence that he had on the Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, this will touch on the importance of Van Vechten in the Renaissance and also how his book created a great deal of controversy amongst the black press and artists as well.
Annotated Bibliography
Bernard, E. (1997). What He Did for the Race: Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem…...
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References
Bernard, E. (1997). What He Did for the Race: Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance. Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 80(4), 531-542.Campbell, J. (2012). A Passion for Blackness. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from: Coleman, L. (1998). Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Critical Assessment. Taylor & Francis.Kishimoto, H. (1979). Carl Van Vechten: His Role in the Harlem Renaissance: The Literary Salon.Moeijes, A. (2017). Character Vs. Caricature: The Construction Of Blackness In Carl Van Vechten’s Nigger Heaven And Claude Mckay’s Home To Harlem. Leiden University.Scruggs, C. (2015). The Unknown Van Vechten and His Impact on His Times. JSTOR.Tabor, E. N. (2014). Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven: Envisioning and Reinventing American Transatlantic Bohemia in Harlem. Lehigh University.Wintz, C. D. (Ed.). (1996). Analysis and Assessment, 1980-1994 (Vol. 7). Taylor & Francis.https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204880404577228982712257036
American Life in the Great Gatsby and the Harlem Renaissance
The Great Gatsby and the Harlem Renaissance (the world of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy and the other inhabitants of Long Island, New York are the other side of the coin compared to the residents of Harlem, New York. F. Scott Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby was written as not only a tribute to the Roaring Twenties, but also as a scorn for the giddiness and gaudiness of the era. The circle of people in Jay Gatsby's world were educated, socially connected, and wealthy. They were what is referred to as old money, meaning the present generations had never wanted for anything nor could their parents ever remember being in need. Their lives were filled with parties and social events Fitzgerald 1995). Fitzgerald painted the life of the rich and empty. Although, never wanting, they were nothing without their wealth. Few…...
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Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Simon & Schuster
Trade. May 1995.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Voices From the Harlem Renaissance.
1. The impact of the Salt March on the Indian independence movement 2. The role of women in the Harlem Renaissance 3. The influence of Chinese immigrants on the development of the American railroad system 4. The forgotten history of the Mexican Repatriation during the Great Depression 5. The impact of the Stonewall Riots on the LGBTQ rights movement 6. The role of Native American code talkers during World War II 7. The history of Japanese internment camps in the United States during World War II 8. The significance of the Zoot Suit Riots in the history of civil rights in America 9. The contributions of Filipino farmworkers....
I. Introduction A. Background information on Zora Neale Hurston B. Thesis statement on the significance of her work
II. Early Life and Education A. Birth and childhood in Notasulga, Alabama B. Move to Eatonville, Florida and sense of community C. Education at Howard University and Barnard College
III. Career as a Writer A. Work as a folklorist and anthropologist B. Publication of her first short story and novel C. Success as a playwright and essayist
IV. Literary Contributions and Themes A. Exploration of race, gender, and identity in the African-American experience B. Use of vernacular language and folk traditions in her writing C.....
I. Introduction A. Thesis statement: Zora Neale Hurston was a pioneering literary figure whose works defied conventional representations of race, gender, and sexuality in the early 20th century. B. Hurston's biographical background and literary context
II. Breaking Boundaries in Race and Gender A. Challenging stereotypes in "Their Eyes Were Watching God": Janie Crawford's journey toward self-discovery and autonomy B. Exploring the nuances of black womanhood in "The Gilded Six-Bits" and "Sweat": Depictions of love, violence, and resilience
III. Embracing the African Diaspora A. Preserving cultural traditions in "Mules and Men" and "Tell My Horse": Folklore, music, and storytelling as expressions of black identity B. Celebrating Haitian Vodou in....
The selection of an effective title for a literature essay is a pivotal task that can significantly enhance the impact and clarity of your work. A well-crafted title succinctly captures the essence of your argument, engages readers, and provides a roadmap for the content to follow. Here are some suggestions for titles that effectively convey the purpose and content of your essay:
1. The Role of Symbolism in the Exploration of Identity in Toni Morrison's Beloved
This title clearly states the focus on symbolism and its connection to identity exploration in Morrison's novel. The inclusion of....
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