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The value of African American literature
African American Literature Essays
African American literature between 1914 and 1945
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Percival Everett’s novel, Erasure, perfectly demonstrates the plight of African-American authors in the publishing world. As depicted in Erasure, African-American authors are not recognized for the talent and experiences that are brought to the table, but rather for the inclusion of the “black” experience in their work, whether it is truly authentic or not. The issue at hand is that the production of such works powerfully reinforces the stereotypes of the “black” experience and, as a result, leads to identity conflicts within the African-American community. Everett creates a character that continually has to fight off the accusations of not being “black” enough, that being Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Eaton 225). In the society Monk lives in, …show more content…
Monk is described as being black and this has to do with his dark brown skin, curly hair and broad nose (Everett 2). Monk comes from a family of doctors, he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and writes retellings of Euripides and parodies of French post-structuralists and as a result Monk is not considered, culturally, “black” enough (Everett 1-2). Because Monk does not write about the stereotypical black experience, his books go unrecognized. Society has this idea of what the black experience should be; growing up impoverished, living in the ghetto, speaking slang, etc. Monk’s career is unsuccessful because he does not fit into society’s existing notions of what it means to be black. During Monk’s visit to a Borders bookstore, it’s brought to his attention why his novels aren’t selling. Monk does not find his novels in the Contemporary Fiction section, but in the African-American Studies section (Everett 28). He is enraged because African-American Studies are not the topic of his novels. A reader who is interested in African-American Studies and were to pick up one of Monk’s novels would be misguided and confused. The location of his novels explains why his novels aren’t selling, those interested in African-American Studies do not want to read about an “obscure reworking of a Greek tragedy” (Everett 28). Monk also makes it clear that the only African-American aspect of his book Persians was the jacket picture of him (Eaton 225). By telling us this, Monk is reminding us that his physical appearance is enough for his books to be placed in the African-American Studies section and not even his work. In order to meet more sales, Monk’s agent, Yul, tries to convince him to write stories about the stereotypical black life (Everett 43).
Monk begins to realize that the publishing of novels is predominately about the selling and profit of the books than it is the work itself. Writing is a means of artistic expression and all authors, regardless of race or culture, should be able to write about his/her individual experiences. Unfortunately, an African-American author who chooses to write about his/her experience, that is not the “black” experience, will not thrive as much as the authors who choose to do so. The notion African-American author’s novels must compose of the stereotypical black life shows that the truth or authenticity of a work isn’t significant, as long as it makes a profit. Juanita Mae Jenkins’ novel, We’s Lives In Da Ghetto, is a prime example of how a novel can lack authenticity, but because it validates the stereotypes society believes are true, it results in wealth and a prosperous career for the author. Juanita Mae Jenkins is an African-American author originally from Akron, Ohio. Jenkins, like Monk, is educated and was not brought up in the rural (Everett 53). Jenkins mentions that the idea for We’s Lives In Da Ghetto was brought on by her trip to Harlem at the age of twelve (Everett 53). Jenkins’ novel is praised for its “authentic” black voice, but ironically there is nothing authentic about We’s Lives In Da Ghetto (Yost 1329). Kenya Dunston even goes as far as saying ‘“The language is so real and the characters are so true to life”’ (Everett 53). Kenya Dunston represents society’s idea on what it means to be “authentically” black. Monk expresses the black stereotypes in Jenkins’ novels to his lover, Marilyn, by asking her ‘“Have you ever known anybody who talks like they do in that book?”’ (Everett 188). Although Marilyn may not agree with the stereotypes in We’s Lives In Da Ghetto, she is an accessory to Jenkin’s fame and wealth. Jenkins’
novel wouldn’t be as successful if readers who disagreed with these stereotypes refused to be an audience (Eaton 228). We’s Lives In Da Ghetto is evidence that stories that stereotype blacks, according to the expectations of society, eventually becomes the only books African-American authors can produce if they truly want their works to sell. Robert Fikes Jr.
Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. 163-67. Print.
Mat Johnsons novel, Pym challenges readers not only to view his work with a new set of eyes but also the work of all American literature with the understanding that the idea of Whiteness still has a very strong power over literature today. It is unfortunate that in today’s society, the pathology of Whiteness still holds a very strong presence in literary world. Literature from American authors versus literature from African American authors still continues to be segregated and handled with two different sets of criteria. Johnson’s novel engages in different aspects of the argument presented in Toni Morrison’s work entitled Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. One of the main ideals that Pym engages in is the thought that “…a figuration of impenetrable whiteness … surfaces in American literature whenever Africanist presence is engaged” (29). Through the character Chris Jaynes, Johnson’s novel focuses much attention on the Whiteness seen in the literary world and how it still affects literature today. Mat Johnson’s Pym addresses Morrison’s argument by challenging the reader to identify the pathology of whiteness as well as encourages readers not to only identify the problem but try to find new ways to combat it.
The plight of the civil rights movement stands as one of the most influential and crucial elements to African-American history. We can accredit many activist, public speakers, and civil rights groups, to the equality and civil rights that African-American men and women are able to have in this country today. We see repeated evidence of these historical movements describes in fiction, plays, TV, and many other forms of media and literature. An artistic license is provided to many authors developing these concepts amongst their writing. When examining specific characters and literary works you can see an indirect comparison to the personality traits, actions, decisions, and journey to that of real-life historical figures.
Gates, Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. Print.
This piece of autobiographical works is one of the greatest pieces of literature and will continue to inspire young and old black Americans to this day be cause of her hard and racially tense background is what produced an eloquent piece of work that feels at times more fiction than non fiction
Without details, the words on a page would just simply be words, instead of gateways to a different time or place. Details help promote these obstacles, but the use of tone helps pull in personal feelings to the text, further helping develop the point of view. Point of view is developed through the story through descriptive details and tone, giving the reader insight to the lives of each author and personal experiences they work through and overcome. Issa Rae’s “The Struggle” fully emplefies the theme of misplaced expectations placed on African Americans, but includes a far more contemporary analysis than Staples. Rae grapples as a young African-American woman that also struggles to prove her “blackness” and herself to society’s standards, “I feel obligated to write about race...I slip in and out of my black consciousness...sometimes I’m so deep in my anger….I can’t see anything outside of my lens of race” (Rae, 174). The delicate balance between conformity and non-conformity in society is a battle fought daily, yet Rae maintains an upbeat, empowering solution, to find the strength to accept yourself before looking for society’s approval and to be happy in your own skin. With a conversational, authoritative, humorous, confident and self-deprecating tone, Rae explains “For the majority of my life, I cared too much about my blackness was perceived, but now?... I couldn’t care less. Call it maturation or denial or self-hatred- I give no f%^&s.” (Rae 176), and taking the point of view that you need to stand up to racism, and be who you want to be not who others want you to be by accepting yourself for who you are. Rae discusses strength and empowerment in her point of view so the tone is centered around that. Her details all contribute to the perspectives as well as describing specific examples of racism she has encountered and how she has learned from those
Williams, A. N. (2006). OUR KIND OF PEOPLE: SOCIAL STATUS AND CLASS AWARENESS IN POST-RECONSTRUCTION AFRICAN AMERICAN FICTION. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/indexablecontent?id=uuid:c9d7fd9d-c5df-4dea-aa22-35820de5878e&ds=DATA_FILE
Morrison, Toni, "Recitatif." African American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology. Ed. Al Young. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. 209-25.
James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.
Although none of the novels were wrote in conjunction, each has a link towards the other regarding abuse, both sexual and spousal, as well as class oppression and the manual labor that was a necessity for survival among black women. By examining present society, one can observe the systems of oppressions that have changed for the better as well as those that continue to devastate the lives of many women today.
Margolies, Edward. “History as Blues: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.” Native Sons: A Critical Study of Twentieth-Century Negro American Authors. J.B. Lippincott Company, 1968. 127-148. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Daniel G. Marowski and Roger Matuz. Vol. 54. Detroit: Gale, 1989. 115-119. Print.
The author was born in Washington D.C. on May 1, 1901. Later, he received a bachelor’s degree from Williams College where he studied traditional literature and explored music like Jazz and the Blues; then had gotten his masters at Harvard. The author is a professor of African American English at Harvard University. The author’s writing
Johnson, Anne. Janette. “Toni Morrison.” Black Contemporary Authors. A Selection of Contemporary Authors.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.
The Black woman struggles against oppression not only as a result of her race, but also because of her gender. Slavery created the perception of Black inferiority; sexism traces back to the beginning of Western tradition. White men have shaped nearly every aspect of culture, especially literature. Alice Walker infuses her experiences as a Black woman who grew up in Georgia during the Civil Rights era into the themes and characters of her contemporary novels. Walker’s novels communicate the psychology of a Black woman under the Western social order, touch on the “exoticism of Black women” and challenge stereotypes molded by the white men in power (Bobo par. 24). In The Color Purple Walker illustrates the life of a woman in an ordinary Black family in the rural South; in his article “Matriarchal Themes in Black Family Literature”, Rubin critiques that Walker emphasizes not only that the Black female is oppressed within society, but also that external oppression causes her to internalize her inferiority. Every theme in Walker’s writings is given through the eyes of a Black woman; by using her personal experiences to develop her short stories and novels, Walker gives the Black woman a voice in literature. Walker demonstrates through her writings that the oppression of Black women is both internal and external.