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The Harlem Renaissance

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Early 1920 s The Harlem Renaissance Cultural movement that applies to African American art, literature, and music (jazz). Migration of African Americans to the ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The Harlem Renaissance


1
The Harlem Renaissance
  • Early 1920s

2
The Harlem Renaissance
  • Cultural movement that applies to African
    American art, literature, and music (jazz).
  • Migration of African Americans to the North after
    WWI (specifically Harlem neighborhoods of New
    York)
  • Renaissance rebirth or revival
  • European Renaissance (1300 1600) - rebirth of
    the Golden Age (architecture, science, and fine
    art)
  • America was developing a new respect for African
    American culture thanks in part to its reflection
    in the work of modernist artists Pablo Picasso
    and Georges Braque.

3
The Harlem Renaissance
  • Literature during the Harlem Renaissance
  • Newspapers and journals began publishing the work
    of both new and established African American
    writers.
  • Some literature focused entirely on black
    characters, while others explored relationships
    among people of different races.
  • Some writers attacked the idea of racism, while
    others attacked issues within black communities.
  • A result of African American writing black
    dialects were as legitimate as standard English.

4
The Harlem Renaissance
  • Impact of the Great Depression
  • By the early 1930s, the Great Depression had
    depleted many of the funds that had provided
    financial support to individual African American
    writers, institutions, etc.
  • Nevertheless, African American culture had been
    forever changed.

5
The Harlem Renaissance
  • African American authors for this class
  • Countee Cullen
  • Langston Hughes
  • Zora Neale Hurston
  • Others that are well known
  • Alice Walker
  • Toni Morrison
  • Maya Angelou
  • James Baldwin

6
Countee Cullen
  • 1903 1946
  • Grew up in NYC adopted by a Rev.
    and his wife
  • First collection of poems published in college
  • Caroling Dusk (collection of poems) was a
    significant contribution to the Harlem
    Renaissance
  • However, the introduction was controversial it
    called for black poets to write traditional verse
    and to avoid the restrictions of solely racial
    themes.
  • His verse was heavily influenced by the poetry of
    the English Romantics (John Keats).
  • Thought of himself primarily as a lyric poet in
    the Romantic tradition, not as a black poet
    writing about social and racial themes.
  • However, he found himself drawn to these themes.

7
Langston Hughes
  • 1902 1967
  • Began writing poems in the 8th grade, and
    publishing
    them in high school.
  • Walt Whitman had a significant impact on Hughes
  • Both poets broke from traditional poetic forms,
    and used free verse to express the humanity of
    all people regardless of their age, gender, race,
    or class.
  • Hughes celebrated the experiences of African
    Americans, often using jazz rhythms and the
    repetitive structure of the blues in his poems.
  • Also, wrote poems specifically for jazz
    accompaniment
  • Hughes was responsible for the founding of
    several black theatre companies (while writing
    and translating dramatic works).
  • Hughes explained that His work was to explain
    and illuminate the Negro condition in America.

8
Zora Neale Hurston
  • 1891 1960
  • Born in Alabama / grew up in Florida
  • Father was a preacher / mother was a
    schoolteacher
  • Felt their daughter was very talented, and urged
    her to
    jump at the sun
  • At 9 years old, her mother died, and Hurston was
    passed among several relatives and family friends
    (supported herself from her early teen years on).
  • Published her first story in college
  • Eventually travelled to NY, with only 1.50 in
    her pocket, and found herself amidst the Harlem
    Renaissance.
  • Began writing stories and plays to celebrate her
    heritage.
  • Her most famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching
    God (1937)
  • Story of a young African American woman who
    strikes out for a life beyond a conventional
    marriage (such as Hurston herself had done).
  • Dust Tracks on a Road an autobiography
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