This Very Short Introduction offers an overview of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural awakening among African Americans between the two world wars. Cheryl A. Wall brings readers to the Harlem of 1920s to identify the cultural themes and issues that engaged writers, musicians, and visual artists alike.
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This Very Short Introduction offers an overview of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural awakening among African Americans between the two world wars. Cheryl A. Wall brings readers to the Harlem of 1920s to identify the cultural themes and issues that engaged writers, musicians, and visual artists alike.
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Very Good. This Very Short Introduction offers an overview of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural awakening among African Americans between the two world wars. Cheryl A. Wall brings readers to the Harlem of 1920s to identify the cultural themes and issues that engaged writers, musicians, and visual artists alike. Series: Very Short Introductions. Num Pages: 152 pages, illustrations. BIC Classification: 1KBB; 3JJG; HBJK; HBTB; JFSL3. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 113 x 173 x 10. Weight in Grams: 116. Clean copy showing some age and light shelf wear. Remains a very good copy. 2016. paperback.....We ship daily from our Bookshop.
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Fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 152 p. Contains: Illustrations. Very Short Introductions. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Fair. This copy has clearly been enjoyed-expect noticeable shelf wear and some minor creases to the cover. Binding is strong and all pages are legible. May contain previous library markings or stamps.
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The Very Short Introduction Series of Oxford University Press offers accessible, pocket-size books to introduce readers to a broad range of subjects. Cheryl Wall's recent (2016) book, the 479th in the series, offers a short but detailed survey of the Harlem Renaissance and its significance. Wall, a literary critic and Professor of English at Rutgers University, has written earlier books about black women writers in the Harlem Renaissance; she has also edited the two-volume Library of America collection of the works of Zora Neale Hurston, an author who is prominently featured in this Very Short Introduction.
Wall's "The Harlem Renaissance" takes the reader through the origins and nature of the Harlem Renaissance and some of its major figures. The Harlem Renaissance was a literary, intellectual, and artistic movement of African Americans to forge a new identity for themselves and to break free of demeaning stereotypes. The movement centered in but was not limited to Harlem. Scholars disagree about the scope and chronological boundaries of the movement, but Wall places it, roughly, in the period between the World Wars. Wall traces the origins of the Harlem Renaissance to the Great Migration of African Americans from the South and to the end of WW I. She describes the nature of the Renaissance as follows:
"It was not just a time when the Negro was in vogue, although it was certainly that; it was also a time when black people redefined themselves and announced their entrance into modernity. They responded to its opportunities and its challenges: urbanization, technology, and the disruption of traditional social arrangements and values. The Harlem Renaissance occurred against the backdrop of the Great Migration, the mass movement of black people from the rural South to northern cities that gained momentum during the First World War."
Wall describes the growth of Harlem and important events that showed the rise of an important cultural movement, including the 1921 success of the musical "Shuffle Along" and a 1924 dinner at Manhattan's Civic Club that featured many Harlem writers and introduced them to a broader audience of New York City's cultural elite. In brief chapters, Wall describes how Harlem Renaissance figures explored African American experience in Harlem, the South, and in Africa, and, most importantly, in their own selves, as they tried and often succeeded in creating important works of lasting value.
For a short work, Wall describes and discusses many individuals. She discusses poets including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Sterling Brown, musicians including Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong, intellectuals including W.E.B. DuBois, Alain Locke, and James Weldon Johnson, novelists such as Claude McKay, Nella Larsen, and Jean Toomer, critics such as Jesse Faucet, and artists including Laura Wheeler and Aaron Douglas. The work of many of these individuals crossed genre lines. Walls also gives substantial attention to Marcus Garvey, an early proponent of African American racial unity and the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
Wall discusses both broad themes underlying and creating the Harlem Renaissance and also the specific work of individuals. Thus, she often offers broad overviews at the outset of each chapter and then follows-up by lengthy treatment of the work of specific figures. Her discussions of individuals and of some of the specific works of these individuals are thoughtful and insightful, particularly of poetry, of Jean Toomer's "Cane", and of the works of Hurston. A critic and a literary scholar, Wall sometimes gets bogged down in the analysis of individual literary works. Her analyses on occasion distract from the broad purpose of the book in giving an overview of the Harlem Renaissance.
The book succeeds in the aim of the Very Short introduction series in introducing the reader to an important subject and, for some readers, encouraging further exploration. I enjoyed revisiting the Harlem Renaissance with Wall and learned both about figures with whom I was familiar and about some figures that Wall introduced to me. Readers both familiar and unfamiliar with the Harlem Renaissance will learn from this book, which includes a good brief bibliography for those moved to read further.
