The Harlem Renaissance in American History - Essay Example

Tanja S Werren Hancock Engl. 262-001 5 December, 2001 The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s was one of the most important culturalevents to occur in African-American history. It provided the intellectual and cultural means for the voices of the marginalized to be deliberately heard amidst the racism and discrimination of the time. The development of jazz poetry, and the conceptualization of the “two-ness” of the souls of the Afircan Americans and the emergence of “the New Negro,” were all calling for a renewal of the African-American identity. The contributions of writers Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston and W.E.B. DuBois helped to achieve that renewal. The poetry of McKay, examined in light of the writings of DuBois and Hurston, shows a renewal of African-American culture that embraces both conflict and unity with the oppressor, bringing the African-American experience to light. Claude McKay may be said to be the tie that binds all three of these thinkers together. A man of Jamaican birth, he finally became an American citizen in 1940. Although he left Harlem at the beginning of the movement, his poetry collection Harlem Shadows would be the catalyst that began the Harlem Renaissance. (Leith 968) Of all the poets of the movement, McKay best illustrates the political and artistic aims of the movement. He expressed in poetry many of the ideas proposed by DuBois and Hurston. His poems expressed duality, struggle, and a search for identity that DuBois and Hurston felt would be necessary to bring the African-American into the light of the modern age. Before analzying these poems, one must understand the struggle exppressed in the works of William Edward Burghardt DuBois. One of the primary intellectuals who influenced the Harlem Renaissance, DuBois stated in his The Souls of Black Souls that: “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.” (PAGE NUMBER) In this, DuBois re-imagined the African-American from oppressed slave to a tragic figure possessed of a proud strength. This very powerful and very postcolonial concept challenged the racial discrimination that beset African-Americans and portrayed them as morally and intellectually weak. DuBois re-frames this discrimination in the opening of his Criteria of Negro Art, asking his audience, “After all, what have we who are slaves to do with Art?” (DuBois 981) In this simple sentence, DuBois challenges his African-American readers to justify themselves in the world of art. DuBois had a primarily Marxist approach to his criticism, calling for a challenging of the white core to which the African-Americans were periphery. Whatever his concern or subject, DuBois “major preoccupation was ever the dialectic of opporession and liberation.” (Rabaka 734) DuBois reminded his readers of this struggle, and that there was “a new fight and new things to fight before the old things are wholly won; and to say the Beauty of Truth and Freedom which shall someday be our heritage...is not yet in our hands.” (DuBois 982) This emphasis on the “Beauty of Truth and Freedom” can be found in McKays poetry. While DuBois and McKay had criticized each others work, the general ideology of challenge in DuBois work can be found in McKays as well. The most vivid and straightforward esxample of the struggle to achieve Truth and Freedom can be found in McKays poem “If We Must Die.” A powerful and stirring work, it calls directly for an impassioned defense against the opporession inflicted upon African-Americans, the same defense DuBois called for in the aforementioned quote from Criteria of Negro Art. McKays poem, however, is stirring in a more direct way, appearing as a sort of artisitc call to arms: “If we must die, O let us nobly die,/ So that our precious blood may not be shed/ In vain.” (Baym 970) The extremes of violence in this metaphor demands that the persona, standing in for the African-American spirit, refuse to “die” without resistence. The persona invisions his enemies repsecting him and his fellows in the end: “then even the monsters we defy/ Shall be constrained to honor us through dead!” (Baym 970) This tragic stance echoes the ideas of struggle and of “dogged strength” in the works of DuBois, both portraying the internal pride of the African-American as a source of the cultures strength. McKays “Africa” takes the idea of struggle and adds mythical and classical images in its verse. The choice of imagery is already interesting, since the West and white culture have historically been enamored with the classical period, tracing their own culture back to the Greeks and the Romans. In “Africa, “McKay takes this classically-focused form and appropriates it for the African experience. The poem accomplishes this appropriation through the ironic play between the title “Africa” and the subject of the poem, namely, the Hebrew slaves who worked to create Egypts monuments. The poem establishes that the Hebrew slaves, also existing in Africa, parallel the experience of Africans ruled by colonial powers or African-Americans “ruled” by the racism and discrimination in their country. McKay suggests that despite the low status of African-Americans, they are responsible for many of the greatest strides in culture: “When all the world was young in pregnant night/ Thy slaves toiled at thy monumental best.” (Baym 970) The “pregnant night” in reference may be interpreted as the general American culture, slowly awakening into the modern age; the slaves toiling at their “monumental best,” then, are the African-American artists of the Harlem Renaissance. McKay suggests that the work of these artists are bringing American culture into a new and more richly developed age. Knowing the history of the Harlem Renaissance, this claim is fully verifiable. We know now that the impact of the Harlem Renaissance was so powerful that writers such as William Faulkner and Zora Neale Hurston would cite the cissues of race and identity questioned by the Harlem Renaissance as the defining and unique characteristic of American modernism. (BOOK TITLE 716) The link between “Africa” and the work of Zora Neale Hurston has many levels, and sheds additional light on the issue of Harlem Renaissance contributions to culture in general. In Hustons Characteristics of Negro Expression, she explains African-American writers use of colloquial language. She suggests that these motifs come not from feelings of inferiority, but from the love of their own culture and a desire to express their identity. (Hurston 1152) She makes a similar statement on the theme of imitation, used widely by literary works of African-Americans at the time of the Harlem Renaissance. “Africa” is an excellent example of this phenomenon. Although McKay appropriates the classical themes of white culture, he does so in order to identify the contribution of the minority to the dominant cultures identity. Making his point through reference to white cultures roots, he is able to make his point in an even stronger manner. This imitation and appropriation, and McKays use of it, also relates to DuBois question about the place of the black person in Art. DuBois asks what slaves have to do with Art, and McKay answers by expressing that the outwardly lowly are able to make the greatest contribution to culture. He also warns white readers not to discount the contributions of those that culture discounts, through the following lines: “They went. The darkness swallowed thee again./ Thou art the harlot, now thy time is done, Of all the mighty nations of the sun.” (Baym 971) If “thee” and “thou” are understood to mean white oppressors, and “they” to mean the African-American artists, then McKay is here offering a new perspective on the burgeoning Harlem Renaissance. Here, he warns the white majority not to discount the work of the movements African-American artists, suggesting that if and when they disappeared, the general culture of the nation would be forgotten. So far, we have examined the contribution of the African-Americans of the Harlem Renaissance in light of their initial lower status in society. McKays “America,” read in light of the works of DuBois and Hurston, confirms the connection between struggle and a maturation that moves toward Beauty . “America” emphasizes the beauty in truth and freedom by showing the struggle as the beautiful and tragic characteristic of the African-American experience. The first four lines portray this most directly: Although she feeds me bread of bitterness And sinks into my throat her tigers tooth Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth! (Baym 971) The word “Although” is placed at the beginning to an excellent effect, since it maintains the hope of the reader as he or she reads the lines that connote suffering, such as “the bread of bitterness” and “stealing my breath of life.” The word “Although” prepares the reader for the “love” of this “cultured hell,” which is present because of how the persona positions the experience in his perspective. This is another example of Hurstons description of Harlem Renaissance artists choice of ethnic dialect. These artists choose words that make the dominant culture view them as inferior because they perceive their “hell” to be cultured. In doing so, they are able to reclaim the negative aspects of their identity and reframe them as positive, leading toa new stage of growth. For the persona in “America,”, suffering is integral to his growth; he experiences “tests” that will lead him to maturity. The transition from youth to maturity is expanded with the use of a sexual image of a man making love to a woman: Her vigor flows like tides into my blood Giving me strength erect against her hate. Her bigness sweeps my being like a flod Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state.” (Baym 971) The difficulty of a youth in making love to an experienced woman described here parallels the struggles of the Harlem Renaissance. The woman in the poem is aggressive and larger both physically and psychologically, just as the dominant culture is metaphorically larger than the African-American artists working both without and within it. In “America,” the characteristics of “vigor” and “bigness” actually feed the persona strength to fight back, and in expressing this McKay places political imagery side-by-side with lovemaking imagery. This echoes DuBois expression of “two souls, two thoughts... two warring ideals in one dark body.” (PAGE NUMBER – SAME AS ABOVE) Here the personal is combining with the political,making war against the oppressor at the same time as it becomes one with her. The American and the Negro described by DuBois must both fight and unify in the body and mind of the artist before they can make the mark that is the promise of the Harlem Renaissance artist. Hurston also discusses the use of love-making along with violence (CITED IN ORIGINAL PAPER P. 7- NEEDS PAGE NUMBER). This mention serves to confirm the power of this imagery and the similarity of the forces of unifying and rising against a dominating personage. This thought is further developed in “The Lynching,” another poem by McKay that focuses on the sharp opposition and Marxist thought that pervade post-colonial Harlem Renaissance Literature. Here, the violence of a lynching is tempered by making the ascent of the lynched African-American a transcendent and beautiful image: “His Spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven./ His father, by the cruelest way of pain,/ Had bidden him to his bosom once again.” (Baym 970) Yet despite this romanticizing of the death of the lynched person, the white people responsible for the “awful sin”that “remained still unforgiven” are still villified. In fact, their guilt is made more vivid by the ironic lack of mercy and empathy the lynchers exhibit: The women thronged to look, but never a one Showed osrrow in her eyes of steely blue; And little lads, lyncheres that were to be, Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee. (Baym 970) The blue eyes clearly mark the women in question as white, and the choice of women an dmen highlight that even the marginalized within the white society still deem themselves better than the African-Americans. But as the lynched ascends to heaven, so does the Harlem Renaissance artist ascend beyond his or her initially lower status. As in “Africa,” the observers of the lynching are as yet ignorant of the true worth that will save the soul of the lynched in the end. Therefore, this poem can stand as another reminder to white readers of the African-American artists value. Of course,the theme of lower status as a gateway to growth and beauty is only a part of the unique contribution made by Harlem Renaissance artists. Use of African-American cultural contexts also has an impact, showing readers that African-American artists have their own rich world from which to draw. This can be seen in two of McKays poems which have as their subject the Jook, a tradition identified by Hurston as a Negro pleasure house where people drink, dance and gamble. (Hurston 1154) This place in the African-American consciousness was a combination of the sensual and the musical, a characteristic also found in McKays “The Harlem Dancer.” The rhythm of these lines show the poetic craftsmanship of McKay as well as the inherent beauty of the Jook: Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes Blown by black players upon a picnic day. She sang and danced on gracefully and calm, The light gauze hanging loose about her form... (Baym 969) The bs and ls in this phrase create a wonderful tonal texture when heard or spoken aloud. The play with sound creates sensuality, thought he poem still manages to be politically charged. It ends with a breaking down of illusion. The last lines of the poem are these: “But, looking at her falsely-smiling face/ I knew her self was not in that strange place” (Baym 969) These lines serve to show that as a prostitute, the womanssmile is part of her job and not necessarily authentic. But what gives the poem a deeper dimension of the political is its use of the words “strange place,” which suggests alienation. This mention of alienation leads back to the African-America races questioning of identity in a place where one is alienated, an “other.” McKay further develops this theme in “Harlem Shadows,” which simiarly talks about prostitutes but uses a less vivid sound. The visual imagery evoked, however, is starker. The black prostitutes, described here: “Ah, little dark girls, who in slippered feet/ Go prowling thorugh the night from street to street!” (Baym 969), are contrasted with the city itself, turned white because of snow. The colors at play are black and white, but the typical connotations are reversed. Where black is usually bad, the newly white world here is the harsh aspect, and the young, innocent black girls are the ones deserving of empathy. This re-framing maintains the idea of the African-American as other, and gives voice to its darker and less culturally accepted experience. However, doing so also gives the African-American prostitutes mentioned a humanity that lets the reader empathize. As we have seen, Claude McKay is an outstanding example of the Harlem Renaissance poet. He embraces the duality and struggle expressed by W.E.B. DuBois and the thoughtful use of cultural constructs described by Zora Neale Hurston. In analysis of these works, we have seen that the Harlem Renaissance artists, rather than creating a new African-American identity, made use of their own experience in their struggle to be recongized and to come into their own. Without their willingness to struggle, to place their inferior status in stark focus to be examined, the landscape of the African-American experience would today be quite different. Read More

 

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