Black Literature

     Black literature is a large and often distinct literature that black American writers have produced over the past generation. Black literature did not start at all of a poet and novelist Paul Lawrence Dunbar and the novelist Charles Waddell Chestnut at the turn of the century. These two figures were followed by many Negro critics and scholars as well as minor poet; but it was only from 1920s to the 1930s that the ground for current black literature was created with Harlem Renaissance. Now suddenly immense number of gifted black writers appeared who brought FORCE along with them an American literary scene, and there was also a sudden new Negro consciousness among the Blacks.

LANGSTON HUGHES     He is an important figure for being one of the leaders of Harlem Renaissance. He was successful in making large impression on the general literary scene. His earlier works does not directly attack white society, his protest are made soft like sad wishes. But in the 50s, his poetry began to express more anger.

RICHARD WRIGHT     Wright came up with Native Son, which was a turning point as it brought forth the bleeding hearts of the Blacks. Native Son is an account of violent criminality with which Negro defends against social oppression. Richard’s story Uncle Tom’s Children brought a complete new image of Black people. Before (Uncle Tom’s Children) it was believed that Black People were like machines – void of any emotions and made merely to work hard; but with Uncle Tom’s Children , it was believed that Black people were hard men . Richard Wright in his novels, used alienation profoundly, but it was not just the isolated image he was concerned with. Through this image he dealt with the mainstream American society. For Wright alienation is not the tool used to escape, but to enter the society and build up a space, and these expose the corruption and brutality lying beneath the so called civilized society. Thus, Wright was concerned with two main purposes on the one hand, he shows resistance, violence and on the other hand, he calls for justice. For this reason, most of his works tend to be ambiguous. However his major works are Native Son and The Outsider in novels and Black Boy in autobiography.These works help in raising the anger in the heart of the American Negroes who have had to endure such cruel disadvantages as the penalties of color. With such story and powerful works, Richard Wright not only became popular at that time but he was equally influenced. Many Black writers followed his technique by using powerful realism and naturalism.

RALPH ELLISON     Ralph Ellison in his protest novel Invisible Man not only focused on Black people who are invisible in American white society, but he also satirizes such corrupt society where human are so different to each other especially, to the Black .Through this novel, Ellison skillfully conveys the Black experience. Appreciating the richness of this novel, Alfred Kazin has also remarked that Invisible man is about the art of survival. The novel Invisible Man is packed full of serious observation of the manners, idioms and human style that continue the ethos of Black life in America. In his Invisible Man, the hero is a nameless black individual who also lives underground in a hole in New York City. He is invisible because the people around him see only his surrounding or their imagination. According to Ellison, the problem is that whites can not see black as individual people. White does only see their own stupid idea of what a black is.The hero of the story had been a good boy in the South. He spoke well and could say just the right thing to black college presidents and white businessmen. But by being so good he is really a “nothing man”. He is still the black victim of white society. Invisible Man describes American social injustice. The character in Invisible Man is presented as a very good man because he follows norms and values of society but in his society he is not man by being man. Through the eyes of Invisible man writer shows the absurdity of America. Invisible Man is unnamed black boy, he is not known as an individual so his quest is visibility and identity. Though is very good man he could not get his individuality. According to Ellison the problem is that white people cannot see blacks as an individual people. Whites only see their own stupid idea of what a black is. He shows that the American society ignores blacks.His protagonist is a young black man (unnamed) who is good Negro for his white master. He did the work which was not acceptable for the white folks, so he was put out from his college as a punishment. He than moves on to New York, there he tries to accommodate him but executive powers order that being black he shall be invisible. He gets a job in a long Island point factory but suffers from labors violence. So on afterwards he is taken up by the Brotherhood that is communist party. He has tried to find room for himself in American industry to become a good cog in the technological machine. He has attempted to attach himself to leftist politics he tried all those things by means of which it would seem that a Negro might achieve visibility in America life. Alfred Kazin says Invisible Man is about the art of survival and as such it is in its brilliant mingling of comic tragic modalities, something close to a masterpiece.

JAMES BALDWIN     In the 1950, Baldwin appeared in American Black writing scenario as a protest writer. He added something an Ellision’s contribution what he had lacked. His famous book Go Tell It an the Maintain concerns the formation of boy’s character, a sensitive Negro boy who has to find his way toward some liberating sense of his own human possibilities in the repressive atmosphere of primitive religion fervently celebrated in Harlem. Baldwin attacks the white hegemony very severely. He talks about the condition in which Black were forced to live. As he says there were no any chances to make their career. Although state law had confirmed equality between white and black people, blacks were pushed again and again to cruel harassment and black students were dominated by white. Similarly Negro drivers were treated differently on their slavery. Black people prohibited to go in good restaurant. Thus in Baldwin’s writing we find increasingly aggressive mode. Beside his Go Tell It on the Maintain there are many famous literary works found in American black literature. Among them the most famous are Givann’s Room. It is about a young American black in Paris. He must choose between love for a man and love for a woman. Both of these novels deal more with psychological problems than with the race problem. Read More...