The Ideologies of African American Literature From the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Nationalist Revolt

by Washington, Robert E.

• ISBN13: 9780742509498
• ISBN10: 0742509494
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-03
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

This book challenges the long-held assumption that African American literature aptly reflects black American social consciousness. Offering a novel sociological approach, Washington delineates the social and political forces that shaped the leading black literary works. Washington shows that deep divisions between political thinkers and writers prevailed throughout the 20th century. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Author Biography

Robert E. Washington is Professor of Sociology at Bryn Mawr College

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: Black American Literature in Sociological Perspective	1	(1)
Analytical Objectives of the Study	2	(3)
Situating This Study within the Sociology of Culture	5	(4)
Organization of This Study	9	(1)
Black American Literature as a Cultural Institution	10	(3)
The Era of the Primitivist School: The Beginning of Black American Literature's Public Role	13	(106)
The Demise of Paternalistic Cultural Hegemony	15	(6)
The Black Community's Transformation and Black American Literature's New Public Role	21	(6)
The Sociohistorical Setting and the Origins of the Primitivist Ideology	27	(9)
The Primitivist Ideology and the Black American Community	36	(2)
Major Ideological Forces within the Black Community	38	(16)
The Writers and Literary Works of the Dominant Primitivist School	54	(15)
The Black Primitivist Writers (Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen)	69	(47)
The End of Delusion: The Demise of the Dominant Black Primitivist Literary School	116	(3)
The Era of the Naturalistic Protest School: The Politicization of Black American Literature	119	(64)
The Depression Years: The Sociohistorical Setting	120	(2)
Communist Party Initiatives in the Black Community	122	(5)
Richard Wright and the Development of the Naturalistic Protest School	127	(3)
Richard Wright: The Early Years	130	(6)
The Communist Influences in the White American Literary Community	136	(2)
The Communist Party's Interest in Black Writers	138	(1)
Richard Wright's Involvement with the Communist Party	139	(12)
Richard Wright's New York Years and Literary Fame	151	(8)
The Naturalistic Protest Literary Works	159	(1)
Native Son: The Paradigm of the Naturalistic Protest School	159	(13)
Other Writers and Literary Works of the Naturalistic Protest School	172	(7)
Everybody's Protest Novel: Sounding the Death Knell for a Literary School	179	(4)
The Era of the Existentialist School: Political Disillusionment and Retreat into Individualism	183	(50)
The National Scene: The Beginning of the Cold War	184	(3)
The Postwar Retreat of Liberal White Intellectual Culture	187	(3)
The Ideological Reorientation of Black American Literature	190	(1)
The Postwar Black Community: Restabilization and Moderate Reform	191	(5)
Emergence of the New Black Bourgeoisie	196	(3)
Ralph Ellison and Invisible Man	199	(4)
The Existentialist Literary School: Major Black Writers and Literary Works	203	(21)
Richard Wright and The Outsider	224	(6)
The Last Phase of Richard Wright's LiteraryCareer	230	(3)
The Era of the Moral Suasion School: Political Re-Engagement through Protest for Civil Rights	233	(42)
The National Scene: Emerging Contradictions and Discontents of an Affluent Society	234	(3)
Changing Social and Economic Conditions within the Black American Community	237	(4)
The Changing Outlook on American Race Relations and the Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement	241	(3)
The Emergence of James Baldwin and the Moral Suasion Ideology	244	(12)
The Emerging Crisis within the Civil Rights Movement	256	(5)
The Erupting Storm of Racial Violence and the Culmination of the Moral Suasion Literary School	261	(8)
Baldwin's Moral Suasion Ideology: A Failed Quest for Racial Amalgamation	269	(3)
The End of Moral Engagement: A Black Militant Assault on Baldwin's Social Role	272	(3)
Amiri Baraka and the Rise of the Counterhegemonic Black Cultural Nationalist School	275	(42)
Racial Polarization and Growth of the Black Nationalist Movement	276	(5)
Amiri Baraka and the Emergence of the Dominant Cultural Nationalist Literary School	281	(25)
The Cultural Nationalist Literary School	306	(2)
Black Nationalist Images of Reality	308	(4)
The Demise of the Cultural Nationalist School	312	(5)
A Theoretical Overview	317	(18)
The Cultural Functions of Black American Literature Compared with Other Black American Cultural Institutions	318	(5)
Historical Overview of Black Cultural Institutions	323	(3)
Theoretical Models for Explaining Black America's Cultural Subjugation: Assimilation versus Hegemony	326	(4)
The Ironic Role of the Liberal White American Intelligentsia	330	(5)
Epilogue: The New Postpolitical Black Literary Culture	335	(4)
References	339	(10)
Index	349	(14)
About the Author	363