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Life during the Harlem Renaissance and after
Life during the Harlem Renaissance and after
Life during the Harlem Renaissance and after
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The Harlem Renaissance period in Modernistic American Literature began when Black authors wrote about that with which they were familiar—what it is to be black. Writers such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Willa Cather proved through their writings that the African-American lives were not only different from that of their white counter-parts, but that the writings were relevant for the historical period and beyond. Another Harlem Renaissance writer who led the way for future black writers was Nella Larsen, author of the story Quicksand.
Nella Larsen was born in 1891 in Chicago, the daughter of a white woman from Denmark and a black man from West India (Britannica.com). After her father’s death when she was just two, Larsen became a source of embarrassment for her family because the man her mother then married was white (About.com). After attending high school in Nashville, Larsen lived in Copenhagen a few years before becoming a nurse and marrying Elmer Imes (Britannica.com). The Imes family moved to Harlem, where Larsen worked at a public library before resigning her position to pursue a writing career (Baym 1721). An excellent writer, Larsen was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship, the first for an African-American woman (BookRags.com). Unfortunately, her world shattered after she was accused of plagiarizing a story and by her divorce from Elmer Imes (Baym 1721). She retreated from the literary scene and resumed her nursing career (About.com). She died in 1964, at the age of 72 (Britannica.com).
The story Quicksand has a myriad of interesting characters. Patricia Hill Collins used the term “matrix of domination as ‘contain[ing] few pure victims or oppressors. Each individual derives varying...
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...f the best stories ever written by anyone—regardless of color.
Works Cited
Labbé, J. ""Too high a price": The "Terrible Honesty" of Black Women's Work in Quicksand. " Meridians 10.1 (2009): 81-111. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 4 Dec. 2010.
Larsen, N. (2007). Quicksand. In N. Baym (Es.), The Norton anthology of American literature (7th ed.) New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
"Nella Larsen." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 04 Dec. 2010.
“Nella Larsen.” (2006). Women’s history. About.com. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. < http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_larsen_nella.htm>
“Nella Larsen Biography.” (n.d.) BookRags. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. < http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_larsen_nella.htm>
During the time period of 1920-1940, many American stories were written. This was a time in American history that is known as the Harlem Renaissance. At the time of the Harlem Renaissance, authors wrote on different things. However, the main focuses of author’s writings were mainly based on the African American culture. Writings from Ralph Ellison, and Langston Hughes demonstrated these works within their writings. Their writings also created a theme of disillusionment, and how belief and frustration, only lead to disappointment. As a result of the Harlem Renaissance, a theme of disillusionment of man was created in American literary history, through the authors’ writings of American literature.
Langston Hughes wrote during a very critical time in American History, the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes wrote many poems, but most of his most captivating works centered around women and power that they hold. They also targeted light and darkness and strength. The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Mother to Son, both explain the importance of the woman, light and darkness and strength in the African-American community. They both go about it in different ways.
Foster, Frances Smith (1993). Written By Herself: Literary Production by African American Women, 1796-1892. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indian University Press.
The first encounter with Helga Crane, Nella Larsen’s protagonist in the novel Quicksand, introduces the heroine unwinding after a day of work in a dimly lit room. She is alone. And while no one else is present in the room, Helga is accompanied by her own thoughts, feelings, and her worrisome perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that most of Helga’s concerns revolve around two issues- race and sex. Even though there are many human character antagonists that play a significant role in the novel and in the story of Helga Crane, such as her friends, coworkers, relatives, and ultimately even her own children, her race and her sexuality become Helga’s biggest challenges. These two taxing antagonists appear throughout the novel in many subtle forms. It becomes obvious that racial confusion and sexual repression are a substantial source of Helga’s apprehensions and eventually lead to her tragic demise.
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and literary period of growth promoting a new African American cultural identity in the United States. The decade between 1920 and 1930 was an extremely influential span of time for the Black culture. During these years Blacks were able to come together and form a united group that expressed a desire for enlightenment. This renaissance allowed Blacks to have a uniform voice in a society based upon intellectual growth. The front-runners of this revival were extremely focused on cultural growth through means of intellect, literature, art and music. By using these means of growth, they hoped to destroy the pervading racism and stereotypes suffocating the African American society and yearned for racial and social integration. Many Black writers spoke out during this span of time with books proving their natural humanity and desire for equality.
Smith, J, & Phelps, S (1992). Notable Black American Women, (1st Ed). Detroit, MI: Gale
The story that Jess Walter tells, much like any other novel, is one of joy and sorrow. Lives intersect and separate, people fall into and out of love, and dreams are made and broken. What Walter does with his plot though is quite different. He writes it in a way where the whole book itself relies on the reader’s ability to realize that though some people meet for only a brief amount of time, their dreams and hopes, can hinge on even the briefest moments. Sometimes the characters in the novel have their stories intersect, some in very interesting ways, and other times you see their story as it is and was, just them. Walter does a wonderful job of bringing together many different lives, many stories, and showing how just because you feel alone, does not mean you are, your life and story can at any moment intersect with another and create a whole different story. Perhaps, Alvis Bender puts the idea that Walter is trying to convey into the best words, “Stories are people. I’m a story, you’re a story . . . your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we’re lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we’re less alone.”
Leonard, K. D. (2009). African American women poets and the power of the word. The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature, 168-187.
The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.
2. The African American culture blossomed during the Harlem Renaissance, particularly in creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great rebirth for African American people and according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the “Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s.” Wikipedia also indicates that it was also known as the “Negro Movement, named after the 1925 Anthology by Alan Locke.” Blacks from all over America and the Caribbean and flocked to Harlem, New York. Harlem became a sort of “melting pot” for Black America. Writers, artists, poets, musicians and dancers converged there spanning a renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was also one of the most important chapters in the era of African American literature. This literary period gave way to a new type of writing style. This style is known as “creative literature.” Creative literature enabled writers to express their thoughts and feelings about various issues that were of importance to African Americans. These issues include racism, gender and identity, and others that we...
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand and Passing. 1929. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1986.
Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Double consciousness, a term coined by W.E.B. Du Bois, explains the conflicting experiences of an African American. This term, double consciousness, addresses the experience of a specific African American, a man. For an African American woman the struggle she faces is even more complex, a triple consciousness. Here in she must make sense of being an American, a black person, and a woman. In Nella Larsen’s Quicksand the protagonist, Helga Crane, personifies triple consciousness and captures the struggle of a black woman in America.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York: