On Afro-American Women Literature During Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance which occurred during the 1920's was an important cultural movement in American Black History. It was a symbol showing that the Black Literature had entered the American literary world in a mature posture. This movement not only cultivated a lot of black male writers, but also brought up quite a few excellent black female writers such as Jessie Fauset, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston. Relying on their subtle sense of art and special cultural background, Afro-American women writers have constructed their own literary system which was of great importance to the development of the American contemporary literature. Their works have become model essays that are indispensable to the study of Afro-American History. Although their creations were once ignored or even forgotten for a long time in American Literary History, these black women writers admit of no denial. They have established a literary tradition with their unique works which has been adapted and enlarged by many contemporary black women writers.By using literature research , together with description and argumentation, this paper discusses the development of Afro-American Women Literature during Harlem Renaissance, and assesses its influence. There are four chapters in this paper. Chapter I analyzes the causes of the rise of Afro-American Women Literature during Harlem Renaissance. Chapter II is an introduction of the creating process of Afro-American women writers. They lodged a strong protest against sexual discrimination and the black women described by them woke up from an insensitive condition to a sensitive one, by which we can not only understand their rough time in pursuing liberation, but also we can hear their spiritual vibration and account. Chapter III is about the main features of Afro-American Women Literature during Harlem Renaissance. The themes of their creations reflected Afro-American women's struggle for the construction of their racial and female identity, and exposed the dual hardships suffered by them—racial oppression and sexual discrimination. Chapter IV assesses the great influence of Afro-American Women Literature during Harlem Renaissance on the development of contemporary black women literature. And its profound and lasting significance is further proved by the analysis of two of the most famous contemporary black women writers.This paper tries to analyze the special cultural status of Afro-American women during Harlem Renaissance, the track of the development of Afro-American Women Literature and their distinguished literary appealing power under the dual influences of American white people's mainstream culture and black national tradition. By tracking down the lives and writing careers of some of the most representative black women writers at that time, studying their main works and the features in their writing, the paper emphasizes that they have made hard endeavor in order to change "the other" image which has been excluded and misrepresented by white people's mainstream literature and black male literature, and to regain their original true image, pursue black women's real self and present their values and dignities as "human beings". Taking a look at Afro-American Women Literature during Harlem Renaissance, we find a perspicuous theme: black women bravely and industriously pursued their self through their own ways under the pressures of racial oppression, sexual discrimination and class exploration. Through their literary creations, they gave a completely new expounding on race, sex and culture in black literary tradition, and showed an astonishing creativity as black females, which was once forgotten by history. Their literary creations provided rich nutriment for the final prosperity of Afro-American Women Literature.