Complete 2 part American Lit Discussion Post

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PART 1:

Choose one of the poems for this lesson's readings (attache below as Part 1 Poem). Evaluate the poet's stylistic methods according to the central criteria we noted for modernist poetry (i.e. fragmentation, juxtaposition, allusion). How does your poem's use of OR lack of these elements change the readability of this work, as compared to The Waste Land or Hugh Selwyn Mauberly?


PART 2:

Read Locke's "The New Negro" and apply his criteria for Harlem Renaissance writing to one work from the other readings. In what ways does the selection you chose convey the ideas in Locke's definition?

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Lesson 10 The Harlem Renaissance A new wave of African-American writing exploded in the 1920s, thanks largely to the phenomenon of black migration to Northern urban centers, which allowed congregating blacks better access to the technology and media outlets necessary to harvest their own literary movement. At its simplest, the Harlem Renaissance set out to do what WEB DuBois said was the major hindrance to being black in America: they tried to ignore the "double consciousness," the reality of seeing themselves through the eyes of a dominant Caucasian culture. As a result, there is little use of the ironic reversal in this period of black lit. Rather, African-American writers took pride in their ethnic heritage and began celebrating the characteristics of black life instead of protesting past injustices. Don't think, however, that they advocated assimilationism like Booker T. Washington; while drawing from the techniques and devices popularized by white modernists like Eliot or Gertrude Stein, they applied them to specifically black settings and plots. Alain Locke's "The New Negro" is the best definition we have of the aims of Harlem Renaissance writings. As Locke insists, migration and urbanization of blacks in the North will soon render the whole "black problem" obsolete. Instead of seeing themselves in opposition against whites, blacks will find economic opportunity and democratic individuality outside the South. As you can appreciate, one of the striking characteristics of Locke's essay is how he invokes a regional prejudice (his apprehensions about the South, with its heritage of slavery and farm-labor oppression) to promote the North and the city. Jean Toomer's Cane is a good example of African-American modernism. This odd collection has been called a novel, a short-story collection, a poetic novel (because it contains selections of poetry, even within stories). You guessed it----Toomer is using the same juxtaposition we saw in Eliot and Pound (and Crane) to create a lyric impression. The story line of this collection involves a Northern black man who travels South to find his heritage. One curious element in the collection is what he has to say about black women. Many of the stories are, in fact, character sketches of women like "Karintha" or Louisa in "Blood-Burning Moon" whose sexuality makes them objects of lust and envy in the eyes of both black and white men. You should also note how Cane uses allusion, but while Eliot and Pound refer to classical literature and myth, Toomer draws from African-American spirituals. This is a technique of many Harlem Ren. writers; it's called syncretization. It is essentially a method of parallelism: you take a literary technique and apply it to a folk-culture phenomenon and you show how the latter possess the same mythic qualities as the former. Langston Hughes's poetry provides another perspective on Af-Am pride. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" was inspired by Hughes's father, who so hated the racial climate in America that he abandoned his family to live in Mexico. Hughes wrote a song of pride through syncretization: Notice how he says being black is a very dignified and noble thing because it looks back to the traditions of the Euphrates, the Congo, and the Nile rivers—all centers of thriving, complex black cultures during the classical age. As for the other poems, you should notice at least two things: 1) Hughes is almost always optimistic about race relations in America (at least until the last two poems, written in the late 1940s and early 50s; and 2) he uses the structure of blues songs as a form for his poetry. Notice, for example, the repetition of key phrases in "The Weary Blues." Sing your favorite blues song to yourself and you'll notice a similar pattern of repetition. Zora Neal Hurston's "The Gilded Six-Bits" also offers an optimistic view of black community life. That optimism is announced in the opening two paragraphs: while the first sets the stage for a tragedy or drama, the second (beginning with "but" ) informs us that this town is a happy one. There are two very controversial elements of the story: 1) the representation of Missie May's sexuality (why she has the fling with Slemmons) and 2) the use of dialect and comedy in portraying blacks. In the first case, Hurston is toying with one of the two major stereotypes of black women; the first your familiar with through Gone with the Wind (the mammy figure), but the second is the promiscuous black woman, someone like Toomer's Karintha who is sexually liberated. What you can say here is that Hurston gives us an image of the latter and basically asks us to take it or leave it, but not to judge it. The second issue is much more complicated. For some black writers, including Richard Wright, the dialect and comedy—especially the encounter between Joe and Slemmons—sounds a lot like minstrel-show farce, with blacks being portrayed as carefree and simplistic, too naive to be bothered by their averse conditions in life. Rather than accuse Hurston of this, however, I recommend you look at the bottom of pg. 1687 at what the white storeclerk says when Joe strolls in to buy a make-up gift for his wife. It's precisely the minstrel stereotype that she is toying with; she wants us to know that blacks are capable of complex moral judgments (forgiveness specifically) but also that there is joy, fun, and love in their everyday life. Finally, McKay's "Harlem Dancer" gives us a great example of syncretization. The narrator gives us an urban scene from the Harlem street of a young woman dancing in public. Think again of the sexual objectification of the black woman: as the narrator notes, this girl is performing, but that act is liberating because (as the final two lines tell us) she's oblivious to how the crowd sees her. She is, in a sense, dancing for herself. What is further interesting about the poem is that this allegory of blacks enjoying life without fear of how they're being seen is that the poem is a sonnet, perhaps the most classical form of love poetry available. See the point here? McKay is celebrating the autonomy or independence of the black vision of life in a form of poetry associated with white European culture. (Again, a parallel is being drawn: McKay is saying that the same romantic agony that Caucasian culture celebrates in the sonnet exists in black culture).
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RUNNING HEAD: Poetic devices

Poetic devices
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poetry

Part 1.
Stylistic devices
The Gilded Six-Bits- Zora Neal Hurston's
Symbolism-the six bits symbolize a warning that people should not always judge a book by its
cover. Things are not always how they appear to be. Joe and Missie have this perception that
money can make them happy but in the end they are almost split apart by money. They later
realize that love is the main thing that can keep them together.
“Alone to herself, she looked at the thing with loathing, b...


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