Chapter 20 new

1、Chapter 20African American Literature and ModernismAfrican American Literature : part of American modernism, but with its special concernsP 265 An integral part of American modernism are the accomplishments of African American writers who, while sharing much with other modernists, had their special

2、concerns as member of a racially oppressed group in the United States.Modernism: a timely aid to the African American writers; P 265 Modernism, as a literary movement defined by creating something new and by a set of new tools, was not only a timely aid to the African American writers in their prote

3、st against social injustice, but also enhanced their hope of making a new world unlike the one that they had known. The Harlem Renaissance（New Negro movement）a period during the 1920s and 1930s of unprecedented artistic and intellectual achievement among black Americans. It began in Harlem, New York

4、, an African-American community. The movement developed from a new pride in blackness, an interest in African cultural heritage, and an appreciation of the folkways and creativity of rural and urban blacks. “New Negro” blacks who would use art and literature to overcome racism & stereotypes.Jim

5、Crow Laws laws passed in the 1890s, designed to segregate blacks form whites; a terrible effect on blacksGreat Migration The terrible conditions in the Southern US caused many blacks to immigrate to the North of the country. This event was known as the “Great Migration”. Literature in The Harlem Ren

6、aissanceWriters central to the Harlem Renaissance include Jean Toomer, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston.Toomers master work is Cane, which combined poetry and fiction in its depiction of African-American life.In their poems, Claude McKay and Countee Cullen condemned bigotry and racia

7、l injustice in often explosive language.Zora Neale Hurston developed fiction and theater based on her personal experience, her anthropological fieldwork, African-American folklore, and Western mythology. However, at the center of the movement was Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.Jean Toomer (1

8、894-1967)Jean Toomer：Poet & novelistAbout his novel Cane mixed genresUniversally considered the most significant of Toomers surviving writings, Cane is a medley of character sketches, short stories, brief poems, and dramatized fiction. Langston Hughes（1902-1967）Major works:The Negro Speaks of Ri

9、vers (1921) “Harlem”The Weary Blues (1926)Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)Langston Hughes（1902-1967）An influential figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes devoted his versatile and prolific career to portraying the urban experience of working-class blacks.Hughes integrated the rhythm and mood of

10、jazz and blues music into his work, and used colloquial language to reflect the essence of black American culture. (improvise; improvisation)(important themes: American dream and its being denied)Having been a victim of poverty and discrimination, Hughes wrote about being seduced by the American Dre

11、am of freedom and equality only to be denied its realization. P 268 Through a new and distinctively African American style, Hughes expressed the exuberance, joy, and beauty that exist in black life along with the anguish; He showed how jazz could transform pain into beauty. His pride of being a blac

12、k and an African American writerP268 Perhaps the most impressive trait of Hughes is his pride and his confidence in being an African American writer. He urged black writers that they should be true to their roots, that they should use the material of their black experience with absolute honesty, and

13、 that they should not aim at pleasing black or white readers.To my mind, it is the duty of the young Negro artist to change through the force of his art that old whispering “I want to be white” hidden in the aspirations of his people, to “Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro and beautiful”.“W

14、e younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they arent it doesnt matter” (Hughes).“Dreams” Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast

15、to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”Ive known rivers:Ive known rivers ancient as the world and older than theflow of human blood in human veins.My soul has grown deep like the rivers.I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.I built

16、my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincolnwent down to New Orleans, and Ive seen its muddybosom turn all golden in the sunset.Ive known rivers:Ancient, dusky rivers.My soul has grown

17、deep like the rivers. 黑人談河黑人談河 （1926） 我了解河流，我了解河流，我了解河流和世界一樣古老，比人類血管中的血流還要古老。我的靈魂與河流一樣深沉。我的靈魂與河流一樣深沉。當(dāng)朝霞初升，我沐浴在幼發(fā)拉底斯河。我在剛果河旁搭茅棚，波聲催我入睡。我俯視著尼羅河，建起了金字塔。當(dāng)阿伯林肯南下新奧爾良，我聽到密西西比河在歌唱，我看到河流混濁的胸脯被落日染得一江金黃。我了解河流，我了解河流，古老的，幽暗的河流。我的靈魂與河流一樣深沉。我的靈魂與河流一樣深沉。“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (title) The title equates black

18、 people with one of the most ancient, archetypal(原型的), and mythic features of the planets geography.(speaker) The speaker is identified in the title as a spokesman for his race.(tone) This poem announced an unusual new voice on the poetic scenea voice that would speak with enormous self-respect abou

19、t the black experience and its distinguished historical roots.(main idea) The poem implies that the history of black people is as ancient, varied, and vital as rivers themselves and blacks have played important roles in human culture since the beginnings of recorded time. “Harlem”What happens to a d

20、ream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin（葡萄干） in the sun? Or fester（潰爛） like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar (結(jié)糖塊) over like a syrupy(糖漿) sweet? Maybe it just sags(下垂) like a heavy load. Or does it explode? 哈萊姆哈萊姆 一個拖延的夢，會出什么事？一個拖延的夢，會出什么事？ 它會不會干枯它會不會干枯 像太陽

21、曬葡萄干？像太陽曬葡萄干？ 或是像瘡癤滾膿或是像瘡癤滾膿 最后爛穿？最后爛穿？ 它會不會像臭肉腐爛？它會不會像臭肉腐爛？ 還是像蜜糖上還是像蜜糖上 干出一層糖皮？干出一層糖皮？ 也可能它只是垂下，也可能它只是垂下， 像負著千鈞重壓。像負著千鈞重壓。 還是它會突然爆炸？還是它會突然爆炸？ Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) Zora Neale HurstonZora Neale Hurston Novelist, folklorist, & anthropologistone of the pre-eminent writers of twentieth-ce

22、ntury African-American literature.closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance and has influenced such writers as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker.Hurstons four novels and two books of folklore resulted from extensive anthropological research and have proven invaluable sources on the

23、 oral cultures of African America.Hurstons work P 270 Hurstons work describes the communal culture of African Americans in the South, placing emphasis on their dignity, their folkways, their speech, and the order of their communities. Her work also conveys the fortitude of selfhood in African Americ

24、an women like herself. Much of her fiction follows the pattern and diction of regional colloquial speech. The speaking “voice” is a prominent feature and it serves both as self-expression and as a sign of social power.Major works:Mules and Men (1935)Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) It tells of Ja

25、nies story, a young black womans search for self-knowledge. This search takes the form of Janies marriages. Their Eyes Were Watching God First marriage: to Logan Killicks. Logan is pragmatic and unromantic and, in general, treats her like a pack mule. Second marriage: to Joe Starks. Janie helps him

26、to be prosperous but soon realizes that Joe wants her as a trophy. He wants the image of his perfect wife to reinforce his powerful position in town. He asks her to run the store but forbids her from participating in the substantial social life that occurs on the stores front porch.Third marriage: t

27、o Tea CakeAfter Starks dies, the now-wealthy Janie meets a lively, attractive, much younger black man nicknamed Tea Cake, with whom she falls into passionate love and with whom she lives a happy life farming in the Evergladesuntil a natural disaster leads to a tragic conclusion to their previously j

28、oyous relationship.“Come to yo Grandma, honey. Set in her lap lak yo use tuh. Yo Nanny wouldnt harm a hair uh yo head. She dont want nobody else to do it neither if she kin help it. Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe its some place way off in de

29、ocean where de black man is in power, but we dont know nothin but what we see. So de whiteman throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he dont tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Ah

30、 been prayin fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd!” All next day in the house and store she thought resisting thoughts about Tea Cake. She even ridiculed him in her mind and was a little ashamed of the association. But every hour or two the battle had to be fought all over again. She co

31、uldnt make him look just like any other man to her. He looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossoma pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him.

32、He was a glance from God.Richard Wright (19081960)His works: Wrights works, most notably the story collection Uncle Toms Children and the novel Native Son, depict movingly the trials and tribulations (苦難) of lower-class black Americans and their struggle for upward mobility in a segregated country.U

33、ncle Toms Children (1938): story collection Native Son (1940)Black Boy (1945) : autobiographical Major character: Bigger ThomasTripartite structure: “Fear,” “Flight,” and “Fate”Set in ChicagoBigger Thomas is impoverished and poorly educated. Native Son (1940)Native SonProtest novelThe novel marked t

34、he beginning of a black literature that refused to compromise with many white expectations.For the African Americans the message is clear, that they are human beings and should be treated as such, and that if nothing else can help to assert their dignity and identity, then it is legitimate to resort

35、 to violence. For the whites, the message is equally clear, that the moment has arrived when they have to come to terms with their African American fellowmen, and that, if they are not ready yet, they have got to be quick or they will have to take the consequences.（常耀信）Plot of Native SonSet in Chica

36、go, Native Son centers around a doomed young black man, Bigger Thomas. Desperate to escape poverty, Bigger, with his street gang, considers robbing a white mans delicatessen（熟食店）, but then gets a job as a driver with a wealthy white couple, Mr. and Mrs. Dalton. Late one night, the blind Mrs. Dalton

37、enters the bedroom of her rebellious young daughter, Mary, as Bigger is trying to help the drunken girl into bed before her parents realize her misbehavior.Plot of Native SonTerrified of the consequences if he is discovered in Marys room, Bigger covers her face with a pillow to keep her from answeri

38、ng her mothers calls. In the process, he unwittingly(無意地) kills her; then, panic-stricken, he decapitates the body and burns it in the Daltons furnace. Bigger tries to implicate Marys Communist boyfriend in her disappearance but then decides to flee with his lover Bessie. In his mounting terror, he

39、decides she is a burden and murders her. Bigger then terrorizes the tenements until police finally capture him.Native Son (psychological description ) Written mostly in an objective and almost journalistic third-person narration, Wright gets inside the head of his brute Negro, revealing his feelings

40、, thoughts and point of view as he commits crimes, is confronted with racism, violence and debasement. (social factors underlying Biggers crime) While not apologizing for Biggers crimes, Wright is sympathetic to the systemic inevitability behind them and the social injustices which forced young Afri

41、can-Americans to resort to theft and violence in order to stay alive. As Wright would later write, No American Negro exists who does not have his private Bigger Thomas living in his skull.“Themes The Effect of Racism on the Oppressed The Effect of Racism on the OppressorThe Effect of Racism on the Oppressed Biggers psychological damage Wrights exploration of Biggers psychological damage gives us a new perspective on the oppressive effect racism had on the black population in 1930s America.Social factors for Biggers psychological damage: Biggers psychological damage results from the cons