Essay Assignment Harlem Renaissance.edited
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Essay Assignment: Harlem Renaissance (1919-1940)
Hannah Rauch
ENGL 637: Studies in African-American Literature
Dr. Yaw Adu-Gyamfi
19 Nov. 2023
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The Harlem Renaissance took place from 1919 to 1940; it was an emergence of African
American art, which included but was not limited to literature, painting, and music. Background
information on the era is needed to discuss the ideas that came during and from the Harlem
Renaissance. With this background information comes a clearer understanding of what the artists
of this time were attempting to accomplish.
First, it is essential to understand that the Harlem Renaissance was not confined to the
geographical area that was becoming Harlem, New York. The era was dubbed the Harlem
Renaissance because Harlem became one of the main hubs for artists to produce their work. The
variety of art that came from this time aimed to answer one central question, a question that
many African Americans had not had the time or ability to answer: What does it mean to be
Black in the United States? The answer to this question was forming in the work that these
various artists were producing. These pieces defined The Harlem Renaissance because there was
"The irresistible impulse of blacks to create boldly expressive art of high quality as a primary
response to their social conditions as an affirmation of their dignity and humanity in the face of
poverty and racism" (Gates and Smith 930). The amount of work produced during this time
makes the idea of examining the Harlem Renaissance feel impossible, especially when taking
into consideration how vastly different the mindset being formed within the newly forming
world of Black art was compared to mindsets of any other time.
The name Harlem Renaissance, as mentioned above, can be confusing because the art
that was being made was not confined to just Harlem, but the name makes sense when examined.
The name’s origin occurred simultaneously with the living space because New York City had
become “seriously overbuilt," and Harlem was initially built as relief for the housing crisis
(Gates and Smith 933). It is important to note, as previously mentioned, that Harlem was a hub
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for Black art, which was helping African Americans make a place for themselves in society,
separate from their identity as slaves. While many African Americans continued to face racial
tensions in various forms, it is essential to realize this was not always the case. While there is
little to no information out there on it, there were many White citizens who supported their
African American counterparts (Boyd 4). The White citizens did this in various ways, like
shopping at businesses owned by African Americans and donating supplies and funds to Black
artists. This is not to say that the Harlem Renaissance would not have taken place without White
Americans, but that not all of them were opposed to the success of the artists who were emerging
during this time. The art that was being produced and consumed came in a multitude of platforms
and focused on various topics.
Just like with any time period, it is clear to see when artists are inspired by a similar
topic, so one way to look at the work of the Harlem Renaissance is by what topic the art responds
to. One of the topics that many artists were responding to during this time was World War I,
mainly because there were approximately 350,000 African Americans who served in the different
armed forces during World War I. However, African Americans who were home were still facing
continuous racial injustices through Jim Crow Laws and lynchings that were still occurring
(Gates and Smith 930). While there was still undeniable inequality for African Americans, it is
essential to note that there was progress being made. However, progress being made in baby
steps is something that not everyone can wait for. Those who could not wait for change to
happen chose to use their art to rebel against society, and others decided to use their time and art
to reflect on what being African meant to them. This was completed by using their African
heritage as a source of inspiration for their work. Whether using their art as an outlet to rebel or
an outlet of reflection, these artists all seemed to be working toward the same goal. That goal was
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to show the history of what their people had gone through as well as what challenges they were
currently facing through art.
The art that was being created included literature. One of the challenges for African
American authors of this time was that not all members of the audience reading their work could
relate to their perspective. It was hard for them to understand a perspective that would put their
friends, family, and maybe even themselves in a negative light. While pointing out the negatives
of some people in their lives, the African American authors of this time also showed their true
selves. This complexity is further deepened by the racial tensions that continued to rise. Susan
Willis compared the writings produced by African Americans to mulattoes because they were
“struggling between two parallel discursive universes” (Barrett 2). This struggle is
understandable because these authors wanted to express themselves and be successful, but to do
that, they needed to express their true feelings, which might and did offend some of the members
of their audience. However, this struggle was not unique to the authors and artists of the Harlem
Renaissance and can still happen in the present. One way that these authors coped with the
struggle to express themselves was by utilizing signifying. Signifying being expression by using
indirection, typically humor or insults (Barrett 2). A prime example of this indirection that was
used, and can still be seen today, by many writers during the Harlem Renaissance was female
writers who would pass themselves as males. The idea was that they would be taken more
seriously as males and be able to reach a larger audience this way. These authors were using
language in whatever way they could to express themselves, even if they were expressing
unpopular opinions.
While the idea of using language to express oneself is not new, it can be hard when it
feels like all eyes are on the work you are producing. The reason that there was such an intense
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interest in this work is not only because of the volume of work being produced but also because
many of these stories were being written for the first time. Before the Harlem Renaissance, the
African American community relied heavily on the oral tradition of stories being passed down
from one generation to the next. Many times, with passing down stories orally, bits and pieces
get lost over time. Thus, having the ability to put their ideas onto paper gave them a new medium
to have their stories passed down. The stories that came from this time showed many varying
sides to African American lives that had not been seen by all of society at this point. The stories
written by African American women from a men’s perspective showed African American men
who had a strong relationship with language in a way that shows they had a strong understanding
of who they were (Barrett 3). Another aspect that was expressed through these stories was the
ability to work through the environments they lived in (Barrett 3). Language has always been a
tool used by African Americans to cope with whatever was going on in their lives, and these
stories were the emerging way to do that.
One of the defining elements of the Harlem Renaissance is how complex and varied the
works of this time were. There is much work to be done when examining work that is as complex
as what came from the Harlem Renaissance. Barrett makes the assertion that "these stories evoke
Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, a recognition that words are not ours alone, that they have
been uttered before us in different context to different ends, that even our own utterances are
ambivalent, tinged with nuance, complicated by other perspectives" (Barrett 4). This explanation
helps outsiders to understand why there seemed to be a sense of urgency with the work that
African American writers were producing during the Harlem Renaissance. These works were
meant to not only capture what they themselves had gone through but also to recall their cultural
background. One literary example of this comes from Lorraine Hansberry's
A Raisin in the Sun
,
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which took place in Chicago at the end of World War II; Beneatha Younger, the main protagonist
of the story, believes that returning to Africa with Joseph Asagai would be in the best interest for
the couple. The idea of returning to Africa expresses what the writers of the Harlem Renaissance
were having difficulty expressing on their own because the roots that they had in the United
States were of oppression and brutality. Many longed for the lives they had or may have had in
Africa.
When looking at the works that came out of the Harlem Renaissance, it is easy to get
overwhelmed, but one area where the work can be easily examined is the written works. Within
the written works that came from this time, it is easy to see the common theme of duality as well
as stories that focus on difficulty and conflict. Two of the most influential authors of this time are
Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Both Hurston and Hughes sought to define what it
meant to be African American in the United States. The two collaborated on a play called Mule
Bone, which was meant to show an "accurate depiction of black folk life" that was never
published with the two as co-writers due to creative differences (Onder 1). It was hard for many
artists of this time to work with one another due to how they wanted African Americans to be
depicted. There were, and still are, many negative stereotypes out there about African Americans,
and artists of this time were attempting to fight against it.
Hurston wanted to fight against the negative stereotypes held against African Americans
that were riddled in society. In Hurston’s mind, she would be able to fight against these
stereotypes with her work. She believed that “The Mule Bone” would be one of her pieces that
would be able to help with this. However, since this play was never published, Hurston went on
to make
De Turkey and De Law
, where she used the same ideas from "The Mule Bone" and
signifying to make the same point. The main goal that Hurston had was to change society's view
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of African Americans. She wanted her people to be seen in a positive light as people who are
smart, respected, and distinguished. Hurston wanted to correct the past views of African
Americans, and it was through her work and the work of other artists of the Harlem Renaissance
that this goal became achievable.
While they had creative differences, Hurston and Hughes sought to do the same things,
and both did it through writing. Both authors drew from the works of African American writings
that came before them, mainly spirituals. Hughes was not only an author but an activist as well.
Hughes' work not only sought to change the societal view of African Americans but also held a
message of hope with them; two examples of this are his poems "Dreams" and "Harlem." Over
time, Hughes' work shifted from being hopeful to showing the resilience that he saw in himself
and other African Americans. "I, Too" is one of the pieces that Hughes wrote that shows his
switch from hope to resilience. Fernandez Alonso and Amor Barros Del Rio put it best when
saying that Hughes' "aim is to voice the struggle and become a sort of guardian of history as well
as the treasure of hope. He shows a tendency to use the ‘I’ pronoun to identify with an experience
of oppression” (10). Hughes’ poem “I, Too” starts with “I am the dark brother./They send me to
the kitchen/When company comes,/But I laugh,/And eat well,/And grow strong” (Hughes). This
poem goes on to have the "darker brother" sitting at the table, and his beauty causes the rest of
the people shame. Hughes was expressing his view that the reason society was cruel to African
Americans was because they were jealous. Hughes was trying to shame society into seeing that
their behavior was wrong and to change their current actions.
The Harlem Renaissance marks more than just a time when African American art was
being created. It marks a time in American history when there was a change in the American
mindset. It was not only Americans who witnessed the effects that the Harlem Renaissance was
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having on society. Not only were people from the outside looking in happy to see these changes
taking place, but many were disgusted that American society had been treating African
Americans so poorly. An example of one of these outsiders is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German
theological seminary, who endorsed many African American writers and believed that people
could not claim to be racist and follow Christian beliefs at the same time (Robinson 212). While
this idea seems like common sense due to the teachings of the Bible, many struggled to deal with
this because they were so set in their ways. Rather than letting society maintain its stationary
route, African American artists of this time sought to make a change. They did this by starting to
answer questions like, "How could the novels of Afro-America in the 1930s supply a cultural
lexicon chronicling survival in an unfamiliar and perilous environment? What were the religious
and theological aspects of such didacticism? What was the 'general' nature of reality, and what
constituted its "just representation' as opposed to the status as a "realistic' novel?" (Harris 267).
The artists of the Harlem Renaissance attempted to answer these questions without necessarily
realizing it. They had more freedom than their ancestors, and they were using that freedom to
express themselves in mediums that they were not previously allowed to. They sought to define
not only themselves but what being African American meant for the community. These artists
were the start of something extraordinary, which is evident in the fact that they are still discussed
over 100 years after the start of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Works Cited
Barrett, L. (2013). “Mark my words”: Speech, writing, and identity in three Harlem Renaissance
stories. Journal of Modern Literature, 37(1), 58.
https://doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.37.1.58
Boyd, R. L. (2021). The Harlem Renaissance and blacks’ employment in cultural expression
occupations. Journal of African American Studies, 25(1), 82–101.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-021-09514-w
Fernández Alonso, A., & Barros del Río, M. A. (2019). Resilience as a form of contestation in
Langston Hughes' early poetry. Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies,
60, 91–106.
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20196289
Gates, H. L., & Smith, V. (2015). The Norton anthology of African American literature. W.W.
Norton & Co.
Harris, M. C. (2013). From Harlem Renaissance to Harlem apocalypse: From Harlem
Renaissance to Harlem Apocalypse: Just Representations and the Epistemology of Race
in the “Negro Novel,” 93(3), 259–290.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1gk09b4.5
Hughes, L. (1990). Selected poems of Langston Hughes. Vintage Books.
Onder, D. (2016). ZORA NEALE HURSTON, "THE BONE COLLECTOR" OF HARLEM
RENAISSANCE: THE HORIZON BUILT ON BONES. International Journal of Arts and
Sciences, 9(4), 119–130.
Robinson, D. (2016). Bonhoeffer's black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance theology and an ethic of
resistance. Political Theology, 17(2), 212–214.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1462317x.2016.1161312
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