Jazz Age: Harlem Renaissance & Fitzgerald

Post-Romanticism: Harlem Renaissance & Jazz Age

Thursday 20 November:

Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay, N 2-2086. Zora Neal Hurston, N 2157-61. Jean Toomer, N 2179-84. Langston Hughes N 2263-68. Countee Cullen, N 2283-87 + "From the Dark Tower" & "For a Poet" (web posts)

text-objective discussion leader (Harlem Renaissance): Ayme Christian

Jazz Age: F. Scott Fitzgerald, N 2184-2201 (“Winter Dreams”)

Thursday 4 December: Final exam. Students may take final exam in-class or by email.

Kate Hebert

Dear Dr. White,

First let me apologize for not writing you sooner. I want you thank you and the entire class so much for the card and generous gift to my family. It was so unexpected and thoughtful.

The money went to buying a mattress for Kason. The poor kiddo slept in a playpen for about a month, and then an air mattress in a bed frame that someone had given us.

I'm sending a proper thank you card to the class this week. Things here have been difficult. We all got sick with bronchitis, and have just generally been struggling to adjust. Me more than Jeremiah and Kason. My happy guys seem to roll with the punches fairly easily.

Thank you for the comments on my midterm. . . . I really felt a strong pull to write about the weird Women/Nature issue. I always think of the Romantics as having a very kindred-spirit relationship with nature, but the more I think about it, that is really only true for some men. I kept comparing it in my own mind with British Victorian literature where women out in nature/ communing with Nature is a very dangerous thing.

Anyway, enough rambling. Again, I'm sorry it has taken so long to write. Thanks for everything.

Kate

course review and final exam

Ike broke the semester but not the seminar

Romanticism = attractive subject & texts, pleasant escape + trials and transcendence

Dropping of research project curbed development of course in scholarship

but class meetings seemed successful on their own terms

students' commitment to presentations, interest in personalities and possibilities

reluctance to dominate--subject so big as to escape finality

+ patience with professorial interventions

Possible outcomes: recognition + expression of  old and new texts

+ standard knowledge of terms, themes, names, history, literary periods

maybe undergrad-style knowledge, but hard to care or embrace knowledge until you're a grad

giving names and terms to knowledge already present

Objective 2: Cultural Issues:

America as Romanticism, and vice versa

2a. To identify the Romantic era in the United States of America as the “American Renaissance”—roughly the generation before the Civil War (c. 1820-1860, one generation after the Romantic era in Europe).

2b. To acknowledge the co-emergence and convergence of "America" and "Romanticism." European Romanticism begins near the time of the American Revolution, and Romanticism and the American nation develop ideas of individualism, sentimental nature, rebellion, and equality in parallel.

bringing the unconscious to consciousness

next stage: criticism of Romanticism--it will still pull you in, but no reason why you can't enjoy it and understand it at once

introducing Harlem Renaissance

Typically Harlem Renaissance would not be studied as Romantic phenomenon but within several other traditions or lines of study:

African American or Minority Literature

Modernism (1st half of 20th century)

Interdisciplinary or multi-media movement: not just literature but music (jazz), theater, and visual art, not to mention study of cultural movement involving migration of many rural or southern blacks to northern urban centers.

(As a result of this last aspect, much Harlem Renaissance material is finding a home on the web--literature + visuals + sound.)

backgrounds "Harlem Renaissance" . . .

first, the period: generally the 1910s-20s

How it starts or develops: Large numbers of rural and southern African Americans move to northern cities in early 20th century, partly to escape segregation, partly for economic opportunity created by World War 1 (1914-18).

How it ends: Great Depression in 1929 wrecked patronage system and "fat of the land" on which a movement like the Harlem Renaissance survived, writers dispersed. (As with American Renaissance, though, most of the chief writers survived this period and kept writing, but less as a movement.)

Other terms or names for Harlem Renaissance:

"The New Negro Renaissance"--this term was used frequently during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. (p. 2096 Alain Locke, The New Negro, 1925)

"The African American Renaissance"

Advantages of other names: Renaissance not limited to Harlem; authentic widespread historical usage.

Disadvantages of other names: "Negro" seems always to be an awkward English word, and nearly everyone avoids it except in a historical sense, with "air quotes" around it.

--African American Renaissance is more inclusive but also drier and duller.  . People remember "Harlem Renaissance" because it sounds like something real, has specificity and flavor, whereas "African American Renaissance" sounds like a scholarly construct. (Cf. "Regionalism" and "Local Color.")

instructor on Harlem Renaissance

"Romanticism" is a European-American inheritance. How well does it fit an African American movement?

How vary light-dark values of European gothic?

(That is, European gothic traditionally associates white or light with good and black or dark with evil. It's obvious that this is a loaded equation for an African American writer, so how do authors of the Harlem Renaissance work with such forms?)

1d. “The Color Code”

• Literature represents the extremely sensitive subject of skin color infrequently or indirectly.

• Western civilization transfers values associated with “light and dark”—e. g., good & evil, rational / irrational—to people of light or dark complexions, with huge implications for power, validity, sexuality, etc.

• This course mostly treats minorities as a historical phenomenon, but the biological or visual aspect of human identity may be more immediate and direct than history. People most comfortably interact with others who look like themselves or their family.

• Skin color matters, but how much varies by circumstances.

• See also Objective 3 on racial hybridity.
   

Norton Anthology, 931-2

(Boston, 1845)

CHAPTER I

I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvesttime, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it. He deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit. The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twentyeight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old.

My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather.

My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant--before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child's affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result.

I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from my home. She made her journeys to see me in the night, travelling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day's work. She was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission from his or her master to the contrary--a permission which they seldom get, and one that gives to him that gives it the proud name of being a kind master. I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old, on one of my master's farms, near Lee's Mill. I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial. She was gone long before I knew any thing about it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.

Norton Anthology, 805-06

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in Life of a Slave Girl

Boston 1861

I. Childhood

I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away. My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skilful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman. On condition of paying his mistress two hundred dollars a year, and supporting himself, he was allowed to work at his trade, and manage his own affairs. His strongest wish was to purchase his children; but, though he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded.

In complexion my parents were a light shade of brownish yellow, and were termed mulattoes. They lived together in a comfortable home; and, though we were all slaves, I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment. I had one brother, William, who was two years younger than myself--a bright, affectionate child.

I had also a great treasure in my maternal grandmother, who was a remarkable woman in many respects. She was the daughter of a planter in South Carolina, who, at his death, left her mother and his three children free, with money to go to St. Augustine, where they had relatives. It was during the Revolutionary War; and they were captured on their passage, carried back, and sold to different purchasers. . . .

She was much praised for her cooking; and her nice crackers became so famous in the neighborhood that many people were desirous of obtaining them. In consequence of numerous requests of this kind, she asked permission of her mistress to bake crackers at night, after all the household work was done; and she obtained leave to do it, provided she would clothe herself and her children from the profits. Upon these terms, after working hard all day for her mistress, she began her midnight bakings, assisted by her two oldest children. The business proved profitable; and each year she laid by a little, which was saved for a fund to purchase her children.

Her master died, and the property was divided among his heirs. The widow had her dower in the hotel which she continued to keep open. My grandmother remained in her service as a slave; but her children were divided among her master's children. As she had five, Benjamin, the youngest one, was sold, in order that each heir might have an equal portion of dollars and cents. There was so little difference in our ages that he seemed more like my brother than my uncle. He was a bright, handsome lad, nearly white; for he inherited the complexion my grandmother had derived from Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Though only ten years old, seven hundred and twenty dollars were paid for him.

His sale was a terrible blow to my grandmother . . .

If white is good and black is wrong, what if you're black?

The most common and familiar "universals" may be culturally determined--and changeable.

African American literature explores alternative forms

Previews "the Black Aesthetic"--"Black is Beautiful!"

Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald, N 2184-2201 (“Winter Dreams”)

Fitzgerald associated with "Jazz Age," which connects a little with Harlem Renaissance through jazz institutions like the Cotton Club and jazz masters like Duke Ellington and others.

Fitzgerald—last blossoms of Euro-Am Romanticism?

Standard problem in Romanticism: the author's life becomes inseparable from texts:

Byron, Poe, Dickinson, Plath, Fitzgerald? 2184

Romanticism (1820s-60s) > Realism (1865-1914) > Modernism (1910s-1950s?)

How has Realism changed Romanticism? 

To what areas is Romanticism limited?

How does Judy Jones resemble Daisy Miller? Or Daisy in Great Gatsby?

How has Realism changed Romanticism? 

[cf. slave attributes; ethnicity > class]

Dexter x aren't very many people

increased her value in his eyes

put her behind him, as he would have crossed a bad account from his books

To what areas is Romanticism limited?

the fairways of his imagination

(mind + landscape, but no longer the forest or sea . . . )

shining through her thin frame in a short of glow

wanted . . . the glittering things themselves . . . without knowing why he wanted

a fish jumping and a star shining

songs as culture referent

ecstasy

radiating a brightness and a glamour he might never know again

pink rompers

Watching her cf branch waving or sea-gull flying (cf. Poe )

Her face seemed to open like a flower

committed himself to the following of a grail

Whatever the beautiful Judy Jones desired, she went after

entertained only by the gratification of her desires

No disillusion at to the world in which she had grown up could cure his illusion as to her desirability

ecstatic happiness and intolerable agony of spirit

[catalog] the thing was deep in him

Judy a slender enamelled doll

seemed to blossom

he was filled . . .

Long ago there was something in me . . . That thing will come back no more

Leftover notes from previous classes

*****

Questions:

"Romanticism" is a European-American inheritance. How well does it fit an African American movement?

How vary light-dark values of European gothic?

compare exercise to Romanticism and American Indians

1. European-Americans tend to romanticize the American Indian either positively or negatively 

2. It is difficult to establish how much the American Indian really fits the categories of Romanticism, or how much it's simply a category that white writers make fit, and Indian writers occasionally exploit.

Insofar as Indians fit Romantic stereotypes, they're probably not being Indian at all but only white projections. Moments of Indian identity tend to be surprising, frustrating, or elusive to white expectations.

**************

Compared to Native American literature and culture, African American literature has developed in a closer (but not necessarily friendlier) relationship with European American literature and culture, so the interfaces between these two are more frequent and deep.

Zora Neal Hurston, N 2096-2109.

2100 cf. Emerson Whitman: cosmic Zora: no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored; merely a fragment of the great soul

"The Gilded Six-Bits”

2100 yard raked

2102 drink Jordan dry

2103 Ah’m satisfied . . . .

2103 I ain’t never been nowhere

2103 his pretty womens—Ah want ‘im to see mine

2104 all, everything was right

[otherwise story hard to reduce to Romanticism]   

Some points where study of Romanticism intersects study of African American literature. One can't be reduced to the terms of the other, but putting them into dialogue helps them inform each other, see each other differently.

How vary light-dark values of European gothic?

(That is, European gothic traditionally associates white or light with good and black or dark with evil. It's obvious that this is a loaded equation for an African American writer, so how do authors of the American Renaissance work with such forms?)

Beware "primitivism"--the glorying of the exotic, akin to slumming

Can instead use patterns and features of Romanticism / gothic / light and dark as base against which to differ or vary

2099 most colored when thrown against a sharp white background

2099 among thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon

2099 so pale with his whiteness and I am so colored

Countee Cullen, 1903-46

One of my favorite poets since high school. He himself was a high school teacher for a while, and James Baldwin was one of his students!

Like Baldwin, Hughes, and others, part of a heavily closeted tradition of African American writers who are gay / homosexual

Early intrigue for me: Cullen wanted to be known as "the black Keats"

What's this mean?

John Keats, 1795-1821, exemplification of British Romantic poet, gift of pure aching lyricism in "Ode to a Nightingale," "The Eve of St. Agnes," "Ode to Autumn," etc.

For Cullen, this identification meant that, while he was an African American poet, his models were from European Romanticism. Contrast with a poet like Hughes, who used blues, jazz, gospel and other African American models--+ Whitman.

But in America, race has never yet been completely forgotten, so "Black Keats"

Exercise: 2 poems by Cullen that are both Romantic, but one emphasizes the "Keats" side of the equation, while the other emphasizes the "black" aspect.

First poem: "For a Poet"--How is it Romantic? Is there any element of the poem that reaches beyond Romantic themes to an expression of African American identity?

I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,
And laid them away in a box of gold;
Where long will cling the lips of the moth,
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth;
I hide no hate; I am not even wroth
Who found earth's breath so keen and cold;
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,
And laid them away in a box of gold.

Second poem: "From the Dark Tower"

How do Romanticism and African American identity meet? What's Romantic, and what's African American?

How vary light-dark values of European gothic?

We shall not always plant while others reap
The golden increment of bursting fruit,
Not always countenance, abject and mute,
That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap;
Not everlastingly while others sleep
Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute,
Not always bend to some more subtle brute;
We were not made eternally to weep.

The night whose sable breast relieves the stark,
White stars is no less lovely being dark,
And there are buds that cannot bloom at all
In light, but crumple, piteous, and fall;
So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds,
And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.

Conclusion: not using Romanticism merely as an inclusive device that turns everything into itself but as a subject that can register difference

"Have to know the rules to break the rules"

Remaining business

1. review projects

2. preview final exam

3. evaluations

2. preview final exam

final exam scheduled for next Monday, 4 December 2006

in-class 4-7

email--submit by 8pm or notify why not

No absolute need for email students to wait until next Monday unless convenient.

Final exam now posted on course webpage:

Syllabus-schedule page

Model Assignments page

You may use your own time between now and next Monday as most convenient.

Limits:

Spend only 3 hours writing. (Welcome to plan, outline, draft, arrange notes, review texts in preparation--no way to control!)

Keep a log of when you start and stop.

Email completed exam to whitec@uhcl.edu

Acknowledgement within 24 hours

Exams & final grade reports returned by late next week

Sample exams posted by selection--if yours not selected, not a negative judgment--Only I've collected so many by now that I can save labor for those that are doing something that hasn't been done before.

copy of 2006 final exam

F. Scott Fitzgerald, N 2126-2143

F. Scott Fitzgerald associated with "Jazz Age," which connects a little with Harlem Renaissance through jazz institutions like the Cotton Club and jazz masters like Duke Ellington and others.

Fitzgerald—last blossoms of Euro-Am Romanticism?

Claude McKay, N 2082-2086.

2082 Jamaican, West Indians and Africans

2083 dialect poetry

2083 strict sonnet form

2083 compelling statements, also good poetry by traditional standards

Zora Neal Hurston, N 2096-2109.

2096 initiation into American racism (cf. FD, Harriet Jacobs); early security > core of self-confidence

2096 Alain Locke, The New Negro, 1925

2097 anthropology, storyteller, informal performing artist, oral narrative

2097 well-off white people were the sponsors of, and often the chief audience for, their work

2097 not entirely popular with male intellectual leaders of Harlem community

x-ideologies

2097 most important work mid 1930s when little interest in it

2097 no audience

“How it feels to be Colored Me”

2098 born first-nighter

2098 white people liked to hear me “speak pieces,” sing, dance

2098 now a little colored girl

2098 not tragically colored, sobbing school of Negrohood

2098 slavery 60 years in past, operation successful

2099 slavery the price I paid for civilization

2099 most colored when thrown against a sharp white background

2099 among thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon

2099 contrast

2099 primitive fury, jungle, living in the jungle way

2099 veneer of civilization

2099 so pale with his whiteness and I am so colored

2100 cf. Emerson Whitman: cosmic Zora: no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored; merely a fragment of the great soul

Jean Toomer, N 2120-2126.

2120 Toomer reconciled the two

2122 Fern as romantic heroine? Cf. Judy Jones

2123 I too had my dreams

2124 held me. Held God.

2124 Dusk hid her . . . .

2124 north-south

Langston Hughes N 2225-2232.

2225 Literary patterns x oral and improvisatory traditions

2226 working class solidarity that nullified racial boundaries

2227 cf. Whtiman long line

2228 darker brother

2229 sweet as earth / Dusk dark bodies

2230 black man, dark of moon, white womanhood

Countee Cullen, N 2245-2249

2245 traditional forms x black dialects or militant manifestos