The Black Arts Movement - Essay Example

The Black Arts Movement Protest literature is usually defined as a literary genre that is produced and created as a reaction to the prevailing cruelties, inequalities and injustices, particularly against some specific community, class, ethnic group, gender or religion. Hence, protest literature serves as a stupendous voice against brutality and malice being exercised by dominant and powerful stratum against the weak and submissive social strata. The poems, novels, essays, plays and stories, indicating the prejudiced behavior and injustices being exercised in society, in a sonorous tone as well as in an angry mood, come under the fold of protest literature. Rising of the Moon, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ice Age and Jazz are examples of modern protest literature, which vehemently protest against social injustices, ethnic biased ness and gender discrimination. Thus, protest literature aims to shield and proclaim the human rights bestowed upon man from Almighty God without discrimination. The violation of human rights on biased grounds is emphatically condemned by the protest writers, dramatists and poets. The literature, protecting the rights of African Americans and highlighting their miseries, while living with the White majority in USA, is also considered as a form of protest literature. A piece of art or literature, claiming the additional rights and favors for any group of society, cannot be claimed as the protest form of expression, because it does not fulfill the prescribed criteria. It is therefore, one school of thought does not consider the writings of the African Americans as the true form of protest literature. Larry Neal, American writer and editor, does not believe such substance as conforming to the criteria of protest literature in a comprehensive way and in its true spirit as well. Neal's definition in the Notron Anthology states that Black Arts Aesthetic in not equal to protest literature because protest literature appeals to the white culture elite, Black Arts is out to define its own aesthetic "destroy" white influence. Neal argues that only that type of literature fulfils the requirement of a protest literature, which is popular among the white elite community. If a poem or novel does not attract the white elite, it cannot be declared as the protest literature. It is therefore, she refutes to admit the twentieth century literary adventures and campaigns of the Blacks, for the protection of their rights, as the protest literature. She is of the view that books, novels, essays and periodicals written most recently, in favor of Black community, are more popular among the Whites than the Blacks even. Neal views that the Black Arts Movement maintains no relationship with the concept of an artist’s alienation from his community. Black Art is the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept. As such, it envisions an art that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of Black America. (2006 30: retrieved in nathanielturner.com) Protest literature cannot be judged on the basis of the liking or disliking of one single community. On the contrary, a perfect protest literature not only captures the hearts and appeals to the significant number of readers, but also indicates the social evils and inequalities being exercise on helpless and feeble members of society. It is therefore, the works produced by African Americans are emphatically regarded as protest literature. The writers and novelists, belonging to African American community have produced significant material for enjoying the privileges on equal foundations as these have been denoted to the White Americans. The protest literature always looks for the identical rights for all communal groups, rather demanding separate and distinguished rights or additional civil liberties for one single community. The writings reveal the atrocities committed by the tyrant European nations on the forefathers of the contemporary African Americans. The literature produced by the African American writers and poets, gave birth to the famous Harlem Renaissance Movement. The motive behind these writers was not mere expressing of their grief; rather, the aims of such writing material appeared as receiving additional gains out of the so called miseries their previous generations suffered for decades. During nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the White Anglo Saxon Population (WASP) was reluctant to accept the equal status for Blacks at all. The writers played the most significant role in this regards. Great writers like Malcolm X, Margaret Drabble, Toni Morrison and others performed their ethical obligations in this regard. Though Neal has negated all the literary achievements of the Blacks stating them as the wave of separatism, which is out of her prejudice against the Blacks, yet she cannot declare all of the Black artistic works as beyond recognition. Many magnificent literary works, including “HOW IT FEELS TO BE COLORED TO ME”, created by Zora Neale Hurston come under the fold of a great form of protest literature. In this book, the author has expressed the sentiment and feelings of a little innocent black girl while her interaction with the white community around her in majority. In the book, Hurston emphasizes the very fact that though she had to tolerate so many unpleasant events while interaction with her environment consists of white-skinned people, yet she never felt herself inferior to any stratum or racial group of her society. Hurston shows wonderful command while elaborating the emotions and thoughts the black minority had to undergo for many decades. She admits that sometimes she felt a bit discriminated, but comforts herself by thinking that perhaps every one feels himself discriminated on the basis of color or anything else even. (1928) Moreover, being herself African American, she herself experienced the humiliating words like nigger etc that urged her record her personal experiences in the form of a book. Moreover, Hurston, in her writings, did not try to show any hatred for whites; rather, she just expressed the problems faced by her community members. Hence, it is not only a sublime book, but also serves as a superb form of protest literature according to the definition of the subject. Similarly, Amiri Baraka’s play “SOS” (1964) is the beautiful expression of the pain one feels out of the miseries of their fellow-beings living far from their native land. The poet, in quite a doleful way, invites the helpless African Americans to rise within the situation they are undergoing in a new land. Since, they cannot return to Africa where they would be as free as fresh breeze from the clutches of cruelties and tyranny, so they have to strive according to the new situation for their survival. The gloomy poem says: “Black People, come in, wherever you are, urgent, calling You, calling all black people.” It is brilliant impression of the sufferings that brings tears in eyes, and serves as a dazzling example of protest literature in the same patterns as Toni Morrison’s “Jazz” (1992) that also portrays the gloomy picture of ethnic prejudice against Blacks. The novel immerses its readers in the psyche and history of its African American characters. It attempts to mirror, from an anthropological and fictional standpoint, the concerns of the Black community and the roots of their collective search for identity. The legacy of slavery reverberates throughout the novel, and the maltreatment of the forefathers of the poor Black community depicts the cruelty and tyranny of the Whites during past centuries. Apparently, the poem looks as the spokesman of the black people, but in reality, it maintains a universal message for all the suppressed nations of the world experiencing sufferings, pains and woes from their dominant stratum. It is therefore, the poem comes under the fold of protest literature. To conclude, the Black community declares the same literature as the protest literature, while the White community including Neal and others, state it mere the tactic to promote their own culture, art, traditions, ideas, norms and cult. it is apparent that both the works above-mentioned, created by the Black writers, aim to raise voice against the biased ness of the dominant community, and thus fulfill the criteria of the exact examples of protest literature. During the second half of twentieth century, the extremists Blacks started producing such art that simply meant to give their community a separate and unique identity all over the country. A sense of superiority and dominance can be found by looking into the Black arts and literature of that age. But all that was at a limited scale and an overwhelming percentage of the works of black authors fulfills all the conditions of a comprehensive protest literature. REFERENCES Neal, Larry. The Black Arts Movement 2006 (Quoted in http://www.nathanielturner.com/blackartsmovementlarryneal.htm) Morrison, Toni. Jazz (1992) Baraka, Amiri. SOS. (Retrieved in "Poetic Style in Amiri Baraka’s Black Art," in CLA Journal, December, 1988. Read More