Langston Hughes

Finally Forming the African American Identity Prior to the 1920s, African Americans had no method of self-expression, and as a result, American culture largely consisted of traditional European influences. The end of World War I provided a unique opportunity for the expression of African American culture that had not been possible before. African American culture of the 1920’s was vastly different from mainstream American culture. African Americans’ adaptations of classical forms of music and literature contributed to the establishment of new possibilities for their racial identity that is both emotional and intellectual. The introduction of jazz promoted the development of a new African American Identity in the early 1900s. Society often
However, this stiff structure juxtaposes the nostalgic, yet sorrowful, tone and simplistic diction of the poem. This mixture of forms and expression allow Hughes to effectively communicate his social commentary by conveying his modern ideas in a typical intellectual format. In her article “Langston Hughes’s Transnational Literary Journeys: History, Heritage and Identity in ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ and Negro,’” Sharon Lynette Jones argues Hughes’s poetry connects African descendants to their ancestors throughout multiple historical periods, and establishes an “interrelatedness of people” across political borders (Jones 74). She describes how Hughes’s imagery establishes a transnational “consciousness and awareness about issues related to African American cultural expression,” and contributes to the unification of African Americans (Jones 77). Jones’s thesis reinforces the importance of heritage and shared experience in Hughes’s poetry. African American society embraced their heritage and continuing struggle for equality as a consequence of Hughes’s highly relatable style. Because black culture expressed pivotal components of its being, such as heritage and the common struggle of oppression, through intellectually blended works, a new racial identity emerges, in
The objective of an anthology is to preserve the best forms of an art which characterize a genre, era, or other classification. Since the works of writers such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Jean Toomer comprise much of The New Negro, one can infer that the form and style of their works epitomize the form and direction of African American culture of the early 1900s. Anthologies not only provide particularly good examples of a certain artistic discipline, but also contain powerful insight as to the impact and interpretation of the works. The New Negro presents African American literary works through the lens of the historical trivialization and stigmatization of African American culture in the face of tremendous hardship, and also proposes an empowered African American culture, which embraces its heritage as a result. The New Negro prints poems and short stories which emphasize the struggles fo African Americans, and highlight their perseverance, alongside imposing illustrations of traditional African artwork. The juxtaposition of these sophisticated modern social commentaries and tribal style drawings attempts to fuse these pieces of African American society into one black identity. This combination reaffirms that the identity of African Americans is multifaceted, and is ineligible for truncation into “primitive,” form (Locke 19). It acknowledges that there exists a junction