Difference Between Harlem Renaissance And Modernism

Is it necessary to separate the two works of literary forms when both carry modernistic traits? Modernism and The Harlem Renaissance weren’t completely different from one another, but they did however place a separation between European Americans and African-Americans writers. The problem with this is that African-American artists, writers, and singers were all grouped into their own class instead of being considered modernist writers like those of “white America”. Although this may be the case, The Harlem Renaissance is more accurately the African-American manifestation of the same modernistic movement that has radically changed writing from white writers which in turn made it its own thing.

Modernistic work is a response to regional writers, shift of social mores, and or technology originating in the late 19th century early 20th century. It was also a response to World War I with the uses of allusiveness and deliberate shifts of social norms. Modernist writers looked to international interest outside of what was currently around them. This in turn was their way of not looking for acceptance of their work although they wanted it noticed.

In "To Whistler, American” by Ezra Pound, he begins uplifting:
You also, our first great
Had tried all ways:
Tested and pried and worked in many fashions,
And this much gives me heart to play the game.

(788)

Pound then becomes descriptive in the nature of being under appreciated as a poet in America although painters are getting a great amount of attention for works even those “in the mood of Greece”. This makes Pound feel that he must vent his position to his readers to one particular painter, James Abbott McNeil Whistler:

You had your searches, your uncertainties,

And this is good to know—for us, I mean,

Who bear the brunt of our America

And try to wrench her impulse into

art.

You were not always sure, not always set
To hiding night or tuning "symphonies";
Had not one style from birth, but tried and pried
And stretched and tampered with the media. (789)

Pound is in disbelief that art from different regions are being more noticed and headlined than what writers produce through their works of literature from an American painter, James Abbott McNeil Whistler.

You and Abe Lincoln from that mass of dolts
Show us there's chance at least of winning through. (789)

It becomes noticeable that Pound wants his writing appreciated versus writers of the Harlem Renaissance era who instead wanted to be appreciated for who they were and have the luxury of being seen as equal in America.
Harlem Renaissance writers also wanted acceptance as a culture not only as writers focusing on only America, whereas modernist writers wrote of many regions. The Harlem Renaissance wasn’t restricted to just writing but also to painting, music, such as blues, art and much more. They were very clear and descriptive about the nature of their treatment and the willingness to find their own identity in America. This caused an era of blacks to write their emotions and sing them through the Blues. More than anything writers from the Harlem Renaissance era were sending silent messages through literature not asking to be noticed, but to escape the terrible reality in which they endured.
Claude McKay, a Jamaican, literary work “America” describes America as a hatred land filled with disappointment and cruelty.
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that test my youth! (928)
McKay works in comparison to Pounds is much more aggressive in how he approaches his situation in America. He sees beauty here, but also finds it ignorant and a waste of time in prospering. Pound on the other hand, finds his work under appreciated in comparison to art. Knowing this of both through their literature, it is noticeable that McKay frustrations are bigger than himself and focuses on a greater scale of America than that of Pounds.
The distinction and separation of the two forms of literature exist because of the nature and the environment it evolved in. The Harlem Renaissance itself could have easily been named African-American Modernism or summed up as modernism completely. McKay would have fit better in modernistic writing considering he was not African-American although it was this way because of his skin color. The world was broken during the periods of both works from high modernism dealing with World War I and The Harlem Renaissance pleading for acceptance in America as African-Americans, which was their home.
Based on the time period alone, it has to be given into account that the separation between these two forms of writing would be different if it is inverted deliberately or not. The African-Americans of the Harlem Renaissance alone had to have some form of education to have the verbiage and vernacular used in their works of literature. When poems are written, the writers are pouring their hearts out in their poetry which both Harlem Renaissance and modernist writers had done but in different approaches.
Although the Harlem Renaissance came to a calm when the Great Depression hit, it is notably clear that it was a turning point for the black culture. Writers had moved on from their literature or became independent writers by this point. The difference in the modernistic movement and the Harlem Renaissance is one great enough for the Renaissance to be considered their own thing. This speaks on evolution. Giving the time and environment, the separation was already there making The Harlem Renaissance its own which was rightfully so.