Week 2: The New Negro, Part II: fiction, poetry, drama, music, folklore and art

These two weeks, focussing on the range of literary, historical, and artistic material contained in The New Negro, will introduce students not only to this text as the cornerstone of the movement, but also to the range of issues and artists that will comprise the remainder of the course. This text, a compilation of art, fiction, drama, poetry, and ideological essays describing the philosophy and character of "the New Negro" as perceived by Locke, will be considered as both a primary text in that we will consider how it reflects its particular cultural moment, and a secondary text in its comprehensive overview of the period and its dominant themes. Prior to a discussion of the text itself, I will provide an introductory lecture offering a historical backdrop to the early twenties and the emergence of the Renaissance.

Week 3: Bursting Boundaries of Gender, Race, Region, and Form

This text is considered by many to represent the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance precisely because it challenges traditions not only of literary genre but of identity on all levels. Cane, which alternates in setting between Southern rural and Northern urban environments, will be used to examine the historical pretext of the Great Migration and the impact of this dramatic geographical shift on African American culture. Similarly alternating between poetry, fiction, and highly lyrical prose, Cane both introduces us to and assists us in considering the meanings of literary modernism in relation to the Harlem Renaissance.

Week 4: The West Indian Presence

The late teens and early twenties represent what is commonly referred to as the "first wave" of Caribbean migration to the United States, most of whose members settled in Harlem. During this period, along with McKay and Walrond, numerous prominent African Caribbeaners (including Marcus Garvey) participated actively in political as well as artistic arenas, laying the foundation for the large West Indian community that has developed in the city, as well as for the complex relationship that has historically characterized West Indian/African American interaction. The works by McKay and Walrond, while both central to an artistic understanding of the Harlem Renaissance, will also be used as the means through which to highlight and examine the issue of national and ethnic difference within the Black American community. (Marcus Garvey's UNIA will also be given considerable attention during this week.)

Week 5: Visions by Women

Week 6: The Urban(e) Outsider

Week 7:

The presence of women in the Harlem Renaissance is a complex issue that has only recently begun to receive scholarly attention. These weeks, presenting three different views of womanhood during the period, will address the role of women artists and the responses to them by the literary establishment (as expressed through Jessie Fauset's editorship of The Crisis), by artists themselves (as is illustrated through the careers of both Larsen and Hurston), and by the general public (as is exemplified in the magazine fiction collected in the Knopf anthology).

Week 8: Paramours and Patrons

These two figures, both White, were important players in the Renaissance--Van Vechten as an actual artistic participant and Mason as an influential sponsor of numerous Black artists including most notably, Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes. An examination of their activities and relationships during the era will serve to raise the important questions surrounding White interest and involvement in the Renaissance.

Week 9

Hughes' text, self-consciously playing upon DuBois' classic work, The Souls of Black Folk, examines the psychological consequences of living forever in relation to "the color line." Although it falls slightly out of sequence chronologically, I have placed it here because of the preceding week on race interaction and because of Hughes' relationship to Mason, who serves as a bridge between Hurston and Hughes. Additionally, Hughes' use of blues form in his poetry leads nicely into the next segment on blues as a musical form.

Week 10 Lecture and Slide Show: Art

These two weeks are intended to demonstrate the pervasiveness of the ideals embodied by Renaissance artists on all art forms. The presence of Africanisms, as well as the increasing use of Black folk expression, in sculpture and painting will be analyzed to highlight the parallels between literary and more broadly aesthetic goals and patterns during the period.

Week 12 The Voice of Dissent

Schuylers satirical novel both signifies the waning of the Renaissance and provides an important dissenting voice during the period. While the dominant mode was to celebrate the distinctiveness of African American culture, to explore African heritage, and to debate Black nationalism, Schuyler asserted instead the inherent Americanness of African American culture and challenged through scathing parody the absurdities of racial distinctions in the United States. This avowedly political novel brings us to the edge of the thirties, when very different issues and themes begin to characterize Black letters.

Week 13 Wrap-up

CEPACS