(see also the overview in the intro to our Norton)
The core concept / movement we discussed this week was the Harlem Renaissance, a post-WWI African American cultural movement defined by an explosion of art, literature, theater, journalism, and music. Modernization—along with the Great Migration from the rural South to urban centers in the North—were both major catalysts in the movement.
Influenced in part by returning soldiers’ exposure to the international art scene during WWI, and also by their sense of disappointment that their service to their country was repaid with continued discrimination and racial violence, the Harlem Renaissance was distinguished by a blending of political engagement and artistic experimentation as well as an interest in the lives of working- and middle-class African Americans. The participants in the Harlem Renaissance saw themselves as a part of broader social movements and revolutions against oppressions of all kinds—racial, economic, cultural. In this sense, the political energy generated in the Harlem Renaissance echoes social revolutions happening in countries such as Mexico, China, Russia and elsewhere during the same period of time.
Although Harlem was a crucial center for African American cultural production, it also served as a metaphor for a much broader movement that was happening all over the American and the world. We need only to look at how widely figures such as Hughes and McKay traveled during the 20s and 30s—writing many of their most important works overseas—to grasp how truly transnational a movement this was.
At its heart, the Harlem Renaissance was about the burgeoning power and force of a renewed African American voice and creative spirit. Black intellectuals made an effort to sponsor and cultivate African American literary talent in particular. Though some of these intellectuals had goals that were strictly artistic, others pressed the political ramifications of this redefined African American voice. For them, such a voice couldn’t be contained in art, but must lead out to broader political, economic and cultural recognition.
