Wallace Thurman - Essay Example

13 May WK17 Wallace Thurman is fairly regarded as one of the brightest representatives of Harlem Renaissance in literature. His literary inventions were similar to a fresh breathe Harlem literature needed so much. That Thurman was a bright literature inventor and experimenter is difficult to define: his literary works are different from the majority of those written during the same period of time. Invention and experimentation in Thurman’s works take a form of intratextuality and subtle meanings, which cannot be understood unless readers are willing to read between the lines and are prepared to reread Thurman’s texts again and again.

Needless to say, like all humanities, literature is about creativity and experimentation, which add their value to the literary works that are always new, unexpected, and valued. Experimentation and invention lay the foundation for the continuous evolution of humanities. Experimentation and invention are of particular importance in literature. No, that does not mean that fiction stories are of primary importance and that fantasy is critical for the success of literary creations. When it comes to invention and experimentation, these are the use of various literary devices and the ideas that authors try to convey that play their role in making literature important and unique.

Wallace Thurman is one of the brightest representatives of Harlem Renaissance, because his use of literary devices and his literary ideas contributed to the new Harlem literature and turned Harlem Renaissance into one of the most important stages in the development of the new “black consciousness” in the American literature. Thurman’s writings are different from everything that was written during Harlem Renaissance in the sense that the writer sought to criticize the existing order of racial things and to provide a novel insight into the state of racial relations in then America.

Taking the example of Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry, Thurman tried to create an objective picture of racial and racist reality and to criticize traditional approaches to literature and reading. Here, Thurman’s experimentation and invention is in how he makes readers read between the lines: “Emma Low finished rinsing out some silk stockings and sat down in a chair to reread a letter she had received from home that morning. […] Emma Low read all this between the lines of what her mother had written.

Jane Morgan was being tearful as usual. She loved to suffer, and being tearful seemed the easiest way to let the world know that one was suffering.” (Thurman 98) The inventiveness of Thurman’s literary talent does not know boundaries. His works seem to have several layers, with each having its own meaning. Thurman describes his characters and their actions in ways that make the reader rethink every word and every sentence he writes. By criticizing Emma Lou’s reading, Thurman actually criticizes everything he likes and does not like in the way people read.

He criticizes the ways in which people, including those living in Harlem, view the black reality. His intratextual revelations make Thurman’s books equally complicated and easy. He gives his readers a unique opportunity to uncover his hidden thoughts and meanings. I cannot say that the use of experimentation in Thurman’s literary creations changed my vision about humanities. I must admit that throughout my studies, I gradually realized that humanities are impossible without experimentation.

Yet, Thurman did an impossible thing: he proved that experimentation in literature is relevant and justified. Moreover, Thurman showed that experimentation in literature, like in other disciplines, does not have any boundaries. He proved that experimentation brings in novelty and makes readers think twice over everything they choose to read. Works Cited Thurman, W. The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life. AMS Press, 1972.