The Harlem Renaissance was a social and artistic movement in the 1920s led by African American writers, artists, musicians, and thinkers. Black leaders recognized the need to produce great literature and art to establish a fully recognized Black culture. Works from this era reflected the experience of being Black in American society and culture through music, literature, and visual arts. The movement built upon new styles in poetry and found its voice in the short story and poem genres, celebrating Black traditions, racial pride, and survival in the face of oppression.

1. Harlem Renaissance
AN OVERVIEW

2. Characteristics
Social / Historical era of 1920s
The era reflects redefining of American social relationships
1913 – 1920 – 4 constitutional amendments – redefined relationship between people and
government
 Federal Income Tax
 Direct election of Senators
 Prohibition – 1919
 Women’s right to vote – 1920

3. Characteristics Cont.
 Era of social discontent and unrest – era of glamour and
abandonment
 Culmination of series of political, social, & artistic forces
 Resulted in an articulation of self consciousness &
 Political mobilization of African Americans – in now
“industrialized” world

4. Opportunity: Create a cultural paradigm
 Black leadership recognized that a “great literature” in Western tradition had to be produced before
African Americans / Blacks could achieve a fully recognized culture
 Goal – literary and aesthetic aim – attain assimilation and nationalization – Du Bois’ “double
consciousness”
 presenting Blacks and the Black experience in relation to modern American culture –
 Recast the image of Blacks

5. Recast the image of African-
Americans
Renaissance is about the experience of being Black in American culture / society
 Art – music / literature / visual arts – central dimension for expressing the
experience
 Literature – reflects the experience
 Literature changed from being an “imitation of white writing” into investigations
of black culture –
 Substantial transformation of expression / experience
 Built on “new poetry” – Eliot / Pound et al

6. Built on Black traditions
Found voice in short story and the poem
 African American short story serves as a vehicle for making short,
to-the-point statements:
 social, cultural, economic, political, or otherwise.
 the short story deals primarily with racial pride and oppression, it
also celebrates survival and deliverance.
 As genre, the African American short-story represents a range of
styles, events, and experiences and draws upon the diversity of
black lives within American history.