Acclaimed upon its initial American release, Black Poets of the United Statescontinued to spark comment and analysis for years afterward. Jean Wagner's masterpiece delves into the vital union of racial and religious feeling in the Black poets who emerged from 1890 to 1940.
Beginning with an analysis of slavery's impact on the Black psyche and religious feeling, Wagner examines the evolution of Black lyrical expression to the end of the nineteenth century. He then moves into a focused study of Paul Laurence Dunbar and his contemporaries, emphasizing their struggle against prevalent stereotypes that stemmed from minstrelsy, popular song, and southern white writing. His look at the twentieth-century Black Renaissance explores the works, themes, concerns, and experiences of poets Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Sterling Brown, and Langston Hughes.
Deeply sensitive and remarkably comprehensive Black Poets of the United States combines encyclopedic knowledge with a broad perspective to provide a pioneering examination of major African American poets and their works.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"A monumental work."--Langston Hughes "A matchless study. . . . the best full length study of Black American poetry that has seen print. Wagner has evaluated the major poets from 1890 to 1940 (Dunbar to Hughes) with a superior critical discernment that is wedded to a sociological and psychological approach. . . . The distinguishing factors in Wagner's study are his aggressive grappling with two-sided issues; his lucid, metaphorical prose style; his thorough research; and judicious, carefully reasoned conclusions."--New York Times Book Review
Auflage
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Editions-Typ
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Dicke: 36 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-252-00341-7 (9780252003417)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Jean Wagner (1919-1984) was a professor of American Studies at the University of Grenoble III. His other books include Runyonesque: The Mind and Craft of Damon Runyon and a French translation of Jean Toomer's Cane.
FOREWORD xiii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix
PREFACE xxi
Chapter One: INTRODUCTION 3
1. The Negro in the United States 4
Slaves and Free Men 5
The Negro "Inferior and Subservient" 9
The Mark of Oppression 14
2. The Origins of Black Poetry 16
Written Poetry in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 16
Folk Poetry 26
PART ONE: PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR AND HIS TIME 37
Chapter Two: THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN TRADITION IN DUNBAR'S TIME 39
1. The Minstrels 40
2. The Plantation Tradition in Poetry 48
Irwin Russell 51
Joel Chandler Harris 59
Thomas Nelson Page and Armistead C. Gordon 62
3. The South's Revenge 66
Chapter Three: PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR 73
1. Biography 73
Childhood Years 73
Early Successes 75
Fame and Its Drawbacks 77
The End 79
2. Dunbar and the Plantation Tradition 80
Dunbar and the Plantation 81
Dunbar and the South 88
The Poet and His Theme 92
3. Race Consciousness and History 95
Past and Present 96
The Search for Heroes 98
Dunbar and Racial Injustice 101
4. The Poet of the People 104
The Problem of Dialect 105
Dunbar and the Negro Popular Temperament 111
The Themes of Dunbar's Popular Poetry 115
5. The Lyricism of HEARTBREAK 118
Pessimism and Religious Doubts 121
Chapter Four: DUNBAR'S CONTEMPORARIES 127
1. James Edwin Campbell 129
The Theme of Interracial Love 130
The People in Campbell's Poetry 133
2. Daniel Webster Davis 138
3. J. Mord Allen 141
PART TWO: THE NEGRO RENAISSANCE 147
Chapter Five: THE NEGRO RENAISSANCE 149
1. New Forces 151
The Role of W. E. B. Du Bois 151
Black Migrations 153
Radicalism and the New Spirit 155
The Rehabilitation of the Negro Past 157
2. The Problem of Self-Definition 160
The Discovery of the Negro and of Negro Art 162
Cultural Dualism and Its Problems 165
Art or Propaganda? 170
3. The Poetry of the Renaissance 172
The Poets and Their Public 173
The Poets and Their Themes 177
Poets in Conflict 190
Section A: IN SEARCH OF THE SPIRITUAL 195
Chapter Six: CLAUDE McKay 197
1. Biography 198
The Jamaican Years 198
The Years in the United States 201
Years of Vagabondage 201
Home to Harlem 203
2. The Jamaican Sources 204
Authenticity of Form 204
Realism of the Peasant Portraits 206
Primacy of the Earth 211
Rejection of the City 215
3. The Lyricism of Militancy 222
Racial Pride 223
Hatred 225
Target of Hatred: Evil 230
The Limits of Hatred 235
4. Exoticism and the Theme of Africa 236
5. Harlem and Negro Art 243
6. The Spiritual Journey 247
Chapter Seven: JEAN TOOMER 259
1. The Destiny of Jean Toomer 260
2. The Poetry of CANE, or, the Pilgrimage to the Origins 264
3. Beyond Race: "Blue Meridian" 272
Chapter Eight: COUNTEE CULLEN 283
1. Cullen's Life 284
A Mysterious Childhood 284
The Productive Years 287
The Last Years 291
2. The Dictates of the Psyche 291
The Burden of Inferiority 293
Death the Liberator 297
Pride as Solace 299
3. Race and the African Homeland 301
Race in Cullen's Poetic Universe 302
A Black among Whites 308
Garvey and the African Heritage 315
Africa as a Pagan Symbol 320
4. Christ as Symbol and Reality 329
Christ as a Sign of Self-Contradiction 330
Mysticism and Spiritual Experience 339
"The Black Christ": A Spiritual Testament 341
Section B: IN SEARCH OF THE PEOPLE 349
Chapter Nine: JAMES WELDON JOHNSON 351
1. Biography 352
From Florida to Broadway 352
In the Service of Country and Race 354
2. Dunbar's Disciple 356
Poetry in Dialect 356
Religious and Patriotic Conformism 358
3. Johnson and the New Spirit 365
4. Folklore and Race: Their Rehabilitation 372
The Condemnation of Dialect 375
The Experiment of God's Trombones 377
Chapter Ten: LANGSTON HUGHES 385
1. Biography 386
The Restless Years 386
Early Successes 389
A Literature of Commitment 391
2. From Racial Romanticism to Jazz 393
Racial Romanticism 394
Rebellion: Through a Glass Jazzily 400
3. The Poetry of the Masses 416
The Social Setting of the Blues 417
Class Consciousness 426
Religion and the Masses 437
4. American Democracy: Promises and Reality 444
The American Dream 446
The Poet and Reality 454
5. Toward a Synthesis 461
Conclusion: Langston Hughes and Harlem 473
Chapter Eleven: STERLING BROWN 475
1. Folk Strength and Folk Frailties 476
2. The Tragic Universe of Sterling Brown 481
The Whites' Conspiracy 482
The Black Man and His Fate 483
The Inanity of Faith 490
3. Means for Survival 496
Chapter Twelve: CONCLUSION 505
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 513
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT 537
INDEX 547
