The Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937) was the most influential single movement in African American literary history. Its key figures include W. E. B. Du Bois, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, and Langston Hughes. The movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature, and had an enormous impact on later black literature world-wide. With chapters by a wide range of well-known scholars, this 2007 Companion is an authoritative and engaging guide to the movement. It first discusses the historical contexts of the Harlem Renaissance, both national and international; then presents original discussions of a wide array of authors and texts; and finally treats the reputation of the movement in later years. Giving full play to the disagreements and differences that energized the renaissance, this Companion presents a set of new readings encouraging further exploration of this dynamic field.
Chronology of major works and events; Introduction George Hutchinson; Part I. Foundations of the Harlem Renaissance: 1. The New Negro as citizen Jeffrey C. Stewart; 2. The Renaissance and the Vogue Emily Bernard; 3. International contexts of the Negro Renaissance Michael A. Chaney; Part II. Major Authors and Texts: 4. Negro drama and the Harlem Renaissance David Krasner; 5. Jean Toomer and the avant-garde Mark Whalan; 6. 'To tell the truth about us': the fictions and non-fictions of Jessie Fauset and Walter White Cheryl A. Wall; 7. African American folk roots and Harlem Renaissance poetry Mark A. Sanders; 8. Lyric stars: Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes James Smethurst; 9. 'Perhaps Buddha is a woman': women's poetry in the Harlem Renaissance Margo Natalie Crawford; 10. Transgressive sexuality and the literature of the Harlem Renaissance A. B. Christa Schwarz; 11. Sexual desire, modernity and modernism in the fiction of Nella Larsen and Rudolph Fisher Charles Scruggs; 12. Banjo meets the dark princess: Claude McKay, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the transnational novel of the Harlem Renaissance William J. Maxwell; 13. The Caribbean voices of Eric Walrond and Claude McKay Carl Pedersen; 14. George Schuyler and Wallace Thurman: two satirists of the Harlem Renaissance J. Martin Favor; 15. Zora Neale Hurston, folk performance, and the 'margarine negro' Carla Kaplan; Part III. The Post-Renaissance: 16. 'The aftermath': the reputation of the Harlem Renaissance twenty years later Lawrence Jackson; Guide to further reading.
