An Overview of the Harlem Renaissance

余思璟（云南大學外國語學院，云南 昆明 650500）

The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, was an intellectual, cultural, and literary explosion that took place in Harlem, New York from about 1918 until the mid-1930s. After the First World War, Harlem became African American residential, cultural and commercial center,where a lot of black intellectuals and artists advocated to create a “New Negro” image with independent personality and rebellious spirit in the form of literature(poems, novels as well as dramas), music(especially Jazz and blues), sculpture,and painting. There were lots of outstanding talents in the movement, such as writers W. E. B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, poets Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, actors Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr., musician Elington, and nationalist Marcus Garvey, etc. They used naturalistic technique to promote the lives of African Americans in Harlem. Some masterpieces included Claude McKay’s poetry collection, Harlem Shadows, Langston Hughes’poem “The Weary Blues”, Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, and so on. This movement improved the level of black literature and arts, and exerted a far-reaching influence on boosting the development of black culture and raising the self-esteem of African Americans.

The claims in the Harlem Renaissance were characterized by four aspects. Firstly, they affirmed African American blackness, praising the dark color of their skin, approving their African root, and supporting Harlem as their “Mecca”; secondly, they protested against racial discrimination, combating the lynching, discussing mulattoes’ identity dilemma, and demonstrating African American rebellious spirit; thirdly,they adhered to their American identities, confirming new negro American identity, regarding African American culture as a branch of American culture, and pursuing the American idea of democracy and freedom; finally, they strove for the racial integration of blacks and whites, adding black fashion into the mainstream cultures, holding gatherings for blacks and whites, and acquiring supports from openminded white people.

This movement had significant influences in many respects. In terms of black cultures, the Harlem Renaissance redefined black literature,musics, dramas, paintings and sculptures. The black intellectuals and artists’ creating techniques featured by individuality and freedom contributed to the unprecedented prosperity of black cultures. It also paved the way for the subsequent development of black literature and arts, inspiring generations of black writers, like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Both the historical limitations of Harlem literature and the difficulties confronting Harlem figures turned into references for the younger generation of black American intellectuals, writers and artists to deal with the corresponding problems in artistic creation.

As for the racial consciousness of black people, the Harlem Renaissance changed African American self-cognition and improved their image in white people’s eyes. It facilitated them to testify their intellectual potentials to the whites, refuting the fallacy that black race were inferior. As well, it marked the awakening of African American racial consciousness and pride through developing black cultural heritages. Besides African Americans, many francophone black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also encouraged by the Harlem Renaissance. Today, the works of Harlem poets and novelists in the 1920s still have influence on the black literature in remote Africa and West Indies.

In the field of social structures and movements, the Harlem Renaissance enhanced the rally power of black communities and united African Americans into Black churches, large organizations like NAACP and the National Urban League. Further, it laid the foundation for the later civil rights movement of black Americans and the negritude movement in the world. It is noteworthy that this movement tried and clarified the validity of black cultural forces in fighting for African American freedom and equality, so enlightened the successors like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to resort to some more approaches.

However, as an attempt to push the progress of black race in the United States, the Harlem Renaissance had its obvious limitations like other American Blacks’ liberation struggles in history. At first,the New Negroes, as black elites, they could not identify with the ordinary African Americans completely. In addition, they held a naive and unrealistic view that white people would recognize them socially and economically as long as they fully display their artistic talents.Moreover, the black writers established neither their own publishing houses nor the stable readerships. Last but not least, without economic guarantee, New Negroes’ creation heavily relied on the white sponsors.In this way, when the economic crisis befell in 1929, blacks lost their supports and became victims. Then in 1935 the racial riot wiped out the New Negroes’ base area, Harlem, marking the end of the Harlem Renaissance.

To sum up, in spite of the extremely difficult circumstances, the Harlem Renaissance succeeded in lots of perspectives and the New Negroes created a large number of masterpieces, showing the potential of African Americans and increasing the mutual understanding between the black and white races through cultural communication. They left precious legacies of thoughts and arts. For example, we can trace some wits in present black writers’ literary works to Harlem Renaissance period. Besides, jazz and blues are still popular throughout the world.The Harlem Renaissance would be a milestone in the history of African American culture!

Works Cited:

［1］Wintz, Cary D., Finkelman, Paul. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Routledge, 2004.

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