Afro-Modernist Aesthetics and the Poetry of Sterling A. Brown

by Sanders, Mark A.

• ISBN13: 9780820320502
• ISBN10: 0820320501
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

Sterling A. Brown's poetry and aesthetics are central to a proper understanding of African American art and politics of the early twentieth century. This study redefines the relationship between modernism and the New Negro era in light of Brown's uniquely hybrid poetry and vision of a heterodox, pluralist modernism. Brown, also a folklorist and critic, saw the Harlem Renaissance and modernism as interactive rather than mutually exclusive and perceived the New Negro era as the dawning of African American modernity. Reading Brown's three collections of poetry in light of their respective historical contexts, Sanders examines the ways in which Brown reconfigured black being and created alternative conceptual space for African Americans amid the prevailing racial discourses of American culture. Brown's poetics call for revised conceptions of the Harlem Renaissance, black identity, artistic expression, and modernity that recognize the range, depth, and complexity of African American life.

Author Biography

Mark A. Sanders is an assistant professor of English at Emory University.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi	(2)
Acknowledgments	xiii
ONE Modernism and Objectified Blackness	1	(17)
TWO Native Modernism and Southern Road	18	(74)
THREE The Critically Real in No Hiding Place	92	(36)
FOUR Balladry and the Modern Hero in The Last Ride of Wild Bill	128	(26)
FIVE Afro-Modernism and the Reinvention of Blackness	154	(21)
Notes	175	(20)
Select Bibliography	195	(12)
Index	207