ELIT 48CClass #15

Accidental or Incidental?

The adjective accidental means unintentional or happening by chance.

The adjective incidental means secondary or nonessential. It often refers to something that occurs in connection with a more important activity or event.

This is a chance to make-up oneHomework assignment. Attend the event and write a brief response to Aimee Suzara’s work. Post it under the extra-credit homework slide I will put up on the website on June 6th. See you there!

Chair Poet?Rain And WindBy Trevor West

Raindrops on this pageWind blows my paper awayOh crap! I need that!

AGENDA Author Introduction:

Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston

Lecture: The Harlem Renaissance: Historical ContextThe Poems of Langston Hughes The Prose of Zora Neale

Hurston

Lecture

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a period between World War I and the Great Depression when black artists and writers flourished in the United States.

Most critics and historians agree that 1917 marks the first comprehensive signs of increased cultural activity among black artists in the Harlem section of New York City and that by the mid-1930s the movement had lost much of its original vigor.

While Harlem was the epicenter of black culture during this period, and home to more blacks than any other urban area in the nation in the years after World War I, other cities, such as Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, also fostered similar but smaller communities of black artists.

What Are We Talking About?

Between 1890 and 1920, the near collapse of the southern agricultural economy, coupled with a labor shortage in the north, prompted about two million blacks to migrate to northern cities in search of work.

In addition, World War I had left an entire generation of African Americans asking why, when they had fought and many had died for their country, they were still afforded second-class status.

Why This Movement?

Harlem had become an entertainment capital. Musical performers moved to Harlem, drawn by the hundreds of nightclubs and other venues where the jazz sound was wildly popular. Performers Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and others played at nightspots like Smalls’s Inn and the Savoy Ballroom. Whites from other parts of New York City “discovered” Harlem and made it the place to be on a Saturday night. Ironically, some of the nightclubs were off-limits to blacks, including the famous Cotton Club, until 1928. Instead, they catered to a wealthy white clientele intent on experiencing the “exotic” Harlem atmosphere.

How did Harlem Change?

A number of black intellectuals, for example W. E. B. Du Bois, made it clear that the time had come for white America to acknowledge the achievements of African-American artists and thinkers. The idea that whites might come to accept blacks if they were exposed to their artistic endeavors became a popular one.

To this end, magazines such as the Crisis and Opportunity featured the prose and poetry of Harlem Renaissance stars Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. Major New York-based publishing houses began to search for new black voices and print their poems, short stories, and novels.

What Happened Next?

White intellectual society embraced these writers and supported— financially and through social contacts—their efforts to educate Americans about their race, culture, and heritage through their art. Ultimately, however, the financial backing began to run dry in the early 1930s with the collapse of the New York stock market and the ensuing worldwide economic depression. The Renaissance had run its course.

How did it turn out?

Author Introduction Langston Hughes

Few authors of the twentieth century are more significant than Langston Hughes. He is assured his status by his many contributions to literature.

• The length of his career: 1921-1967• The variety of his output: articles, poems, short stories, dramas,

novels, and history texts.• His influence on three generations of African American writers:

from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil Rights Movement

• His concern for the “ordinary” African American: The subject of his work

• His introduction of the jazz idiom: the quality of black colloquial speech and the rhythms of jazz and the blues.

During his long career Hughes was harshly criticized by blacks and whites. Because he left no single masterwork, such as Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) or Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), and because he consciously wrote in the common idiom of the people, academic interest in him grew only slowly. The importance of his influence on several generations of African American authors is, however, indisputable and widely acknowledged.

In your groups, discuss your responses to the homework questions concerning Hughes’s poems “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “I, too, sing America,” “The Weary Blues”

1. What connections can be made between race and blues music in "The Weary Blues"?

2. What do you think it means to have a soul that is deep as rivers?

3. How does “I, too, sing America” make you think about what it means to be an American? How is "America" presented in this poem, and how does it make you feel about America?

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

What do you think it means to have a soul that is deep as rivers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFp40WJbsA

What do you think it means to have a soul that is deep as rivers? In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston Hughes, the

speaker repeats the phrase, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.” This simile, comparing the speaker’s soul to rivers, works as figurative imagery and language, which in turn conveys complex ideas and emotions. The image of a river could be interpreted as a stream of consciousness, liminal space, and time itself. Interpreting the title of the poem as exposition, one could discern that the speaker of the poem is “The Negro [that] Speaks of Rivers.” The speaker details his proximity to rivers near and in Africa, such as the “Euphrates,” “Congo,” and “Nile,” and then to rivers in America, such as the “Mississippi.” The geographical locations of these rivers reflects the passage of African Americans from their roots in Africa to their relocation into America.

“I, too, sing America”

How does “I, too, sing America” make you think about what it means to be an American? How is "America" presented in this poem, and how does it make you feel about America?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiCWngPt-L4

How does “I, too, sing America” make you think about what it means to be an American? How is "America" presented in this poem, and how does it make you feel about America?

America is my home and I believe to be a real American we must respect the freedoms off all Americans, and live in an accepting atmosphere. When reading Langston Hughes “ I, too, sing America” America is presented as an oppressive state to those of color. The poem brings up how the African Americans would be told to “eat at the kitchen” this make them feel as lesser. During the slave era Africans would be the ones serving dinner when the guests arrive but when it comes time to eat they are told to “eat at the kitchen”. However they laugh it off, eat well and grow stronger. The oppressive nature only builds their character and makes them stronger for when tomorrow comes they’ll sit at the table. When the guests arrive one will think to send them to the kitchen because African Americans stand just as tall. They will notice the beauty and be ashamed of all the oppressive, hateful, and violence they caused to these people for they are Americans too! After reading the poem it makes me sad and ashamed to be American it’s a guilty burden we as a nation carry but I also see hope and a brighter future ahead because no matter how difficult times might be there’s always a way to stop racism and oppression.

“The Weary Blues” What connections can be made between race and blues music in "The Weary Blues"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM7HSOwJw20

What connections can be made between race and blues music in "The Weary Blues”?Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play.Down on Lenox Avenue the other nightBy the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway . . . He did a lazy sway . . .To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.With his ebony hands on each ivory keyHe made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues!

Swaying to and fro on his rickety stoolHe played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. Sweet Blues!Coming from a black man’s soul. O Blues!In a deep song voice with a melancholy toneI heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan— “Ain’t got nobody in all this world, Ain’t got nobody but ma self. I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’

Author Introduction Zora Neale Hurston

A novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston was the prototypical authority on black culture from the Harlem Renaissance.

Zora Neale Hurston combined literature with anthropology. She first gained attention with her short stories such as "John Redding Goes to Sea.” After several years of anthropological research financed through grants and fellowships, Zora Neale Hurston's first novel Jonah's Gourd Vine was published in 1934 to critical success. In 1935, her book Mules and Men, which investigated voodoo practices in black communities in Florida and New Orleans, also brought her success. Hurston's greatest novel, Their Eyes Watching God, was published in 1937.

Zora Neale Hurston was a utopian, who held that black Americans could attain sovereignty from white American society and all its bigotry, as proven by her hometown of Eatonville.

Her work did not address the issue of racism of whites, and as this became a emerging theme among black writers in the post World War II era of civil rights, Hurston's literary influence faded.

She further damaged her own reputation by criticizing the civil rights movement and supporting ultraconservative politicians. She died in poverty and obscurity.

After graduating from Barnard College in New York City, Hurston returned to Eatonville to study her townspeople. As an anthropologist, she treasured the myths, legends, and folklore that combined to create the unique African-American culture. Hurston's cultural pride and anthropological interests fused in her fiction. She recorded the voice of her native townspeople in an authentic manner, effectively capturing the mood, speech patterns, attitudes, and customs of Eatonville. Today, one of the most noted features of Hurston's fiction is her use of the African-American dialect in the speech of her characters.

Zora Neale Hurston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PANwrq_OuPM&list=PLhUY1LZyjQLUARKUgLPv1vrSc-1WqoCVE

Group Discussion1. Community is the primary bond among the stories contained in

"The Eatonville Anthology." How does the image of a front porch act as a symbol of the social concept of community? Cite specific incidents from the story that prove this connection.

2. How does the narrator's viewpoint direct the reader's understanding and approval of the citizens presented in "The Eatonville Anthology"? Discuss specific examples.

3. QHQ: “How it Feels to Be Colored Me”

Community is a consistent theme in the works of Zora Neale Hurston and the primary bond among the smaller stories contained in "The Eatonville Anthology." How does the image of a front porch act as a symbol of the social concept of community? Cite specific incidents from the story that prove this connection.

Since Eatonville is a contained, small town, the front porch allows the community members to basically become involved in the lives and experiences of others either through actively seeing or hearing abut a situation. An example of this interaction can be seen in “The Head of the Nail”, where Mrs. Crooms confronts her husband’s mistress, Daisy and everyone else sees and discusses about the incident. Rumors are spread through the front porch, which might be the case of Becky Moore and her mixed race children. Accusations have obviously been thrown around regarding her circumstances, resulting in other mothers gossiping about the fact Becky’s children are “loose” without a father figure. The front porch connects people together in small towns and allows them to interact with each other due to collective experiences, such as residency and race. […]In a small, connected town, front porches are absolutely vital for the interactions between people.

How does the narrator's viewpoint direct the reader's understanding and approval of the citizens presented in "The Eatonville Anthology"? Discuss specific examples.In section eight, “Pants and Cal’line” Sister Cal’line Potts is not jealous that her husband is weak for other women; she takes advantage of the situation and plays her part. The town has seen Cal’line go through the same situation constantly, and have even developed the expectation for her to react in a similar manner with Mis’ Pheeny. The townspeople even say, “‘Dat devil of a Cal’line’s got somethin’ up her sleeve!’ The town smiled in anticipation” (537). Here it is seen how involved the community is in her relationship with her husband. They are already expecting her to be up to no good. However, when they saw that nothing was happening they begin to doubt her, for “the town waited and the longer it waited, the odds changed slowly from the wife to the husband” (537). Not only is the town aware of what is going on in the lives of Cal’line and her husband, but they are involved to the point that they see it as a game and they are playing each one against each other. In the end of the story Cal’line finally goes into action, and follows her husband to wherever he is going, as passed by “He was hailed cheerily as he passed the sitters on the store porch and answered smiling sheepishly and passed on. Two minutes later passed his wife, silently, unsmiling, and set the porch to giggling and betting.” (537) […] I think that the porch acts as the center of everything that happens in the community as well as the key location to receive information which would explain why the town is so involved in other people’s business.

QHQs: “How it Feels to Be Colored Me

1. What does Hurston mean when she states “ I remember the very day that I became colored” (538).

2. Q: Why are the lines “I was not Zora of Orange County any more, I was now a little colored girl. I found out in certain ways” (539) important from “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”?

3. What is the importance of Hurston’s comparing herself and others to a bag of miscellany at the end of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”? And what is the importance of Hurston switching to the second person by saying “In your hand is the brown bag. On the ground before you is the jumble it held–”?

QHQs: “How it Feels to Be Colored Me”

1. Q: Why does Hurston decide to include such wild imagery in her description of jazz music? For the most part, the short story uses a stage metaphor; however this metaphor uses almost tribal imagery to depict the narrator. How does this somewhat sudden change in the flow of the story affect our understanding of it?

2. Q: Why does the speaker often depicts the uncivilized and savage characteristics of her inner self, such as, “I dance wildly inside myself; I yell within, I whoop; I shake my assegai above my head, I hurl it true to the mark yeeeeooww!”, when her emotions are being stimulate by aspects of African American culture, Jazz, in a white society?

3. What connections can be made between race and blues music in “The Weary Blues?”

QHQs: “How it Feels to Be Colored Me1. Q: In what ways does Zora Hurston promote the concept of

indifference/dissociation as an effective response to racial hate?

2. Q: In what ways does Hurston deflect racism and how does she view herself in society?

3. How does Hurston’s text support the notion that race is a social construct?

4. Q: What connections can be made between Zora Neal Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” and Langston Hughes’ “I, Too” ?

5. Q: How does the theme of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston Hughes reflect Zora Neale Hurston’s experience in, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”?

HOMEWORK

Post # 18 In 300 words, consider one of our

previous texts through the lens of African American Criticism.

Read “American Literature since 1945” pp. 3-19Read Mary Klages “Postmodernism.” There is a link to this article on the website home page. Post #19

QHQ on Klages Essay #1 Due Friday week 8 at

noon!