The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance ----- the unprecedented rich surge of African American literature and arts in the early-twentieth-century America ----- was one of the most significant events in African American literature and culture in the twentieth century and is now celebrated as the most creative period in African American culture. And yet it is also an extremely complex and controversial historical event in African American culture: so far the participants of the Harlem Renaissance did not reach and the scholars of the renaissance have not yet reached any consensus concerning the precise chronological boundary, the nature as well as the significance and legacy of the renaissance. Since the 1960s the Harlem Renaissance has been a hot issue in American academic circles. Numerous monographs, essays and articles by the scholars of the Harlem Renaissance as well as a large number of master theses and doctoral dissertations examine the renaissance from various perspectives and deal with nearly each aspect of or anything related to it. By contrast, the academic studies of the Harlem Renaissance are relatively weak in China. By and large, Chinese scholars tend to view the Harlem Renaissance as a literary and cultural event, not only lacking a broad and in-depth analysis of the renaissance as a movement of art and literature, but also overlooking the renaissance as an intellectual and sociopolitical movement. Evidently, our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance is far from inadequate. The present thesis is an effort to address such an inadequacy in the study of the renaissance in China. The thesis attempts to provide a historical analysis of the Harlem Renaissance by placing it in the historical setting in which it emerged and by examining the historical context, the significant developments in black literature and arts as well as the significance and legacy of the renaissance not only as a movement of art and literature, but also as an intellectual and sociopolitical movement.The main arguments are: 1) The rise, growth and decline of the Harlem Renaissance was in many respects related to the major cultural, economic, political and social events of its day and was affected by the developments in the society as a whole. There were four major factors, among others, i.e. the emergence of Harlem as the capital and the political and cultural center of black America, the rise of the"New Negro", black intellectuals'efforts in promoting black arts and Negro Vogue at Jazz Age, which contributed most significantly to the emergence and blossoming of the renaissance. 2) The Harlem Renaissance witnessed the flowering of black literature, music and visual arts as well as the rise of serious black drama and theatre. Moreover, the renaissance art and literature displayed dramatic creativity. This had much to do with the fact that the black intellectuals as well as the"New Negro"writers and artists, greatly inspired by the renewed racial pride and race consciousness, on the one hand, responded to the call of the older black intellectuals to develop black culture and art and literature in the hope of ultimately gaining acceptance by the mainstream American society and winning racial equality and justice,and, on the other hand, lacked a well-defined aesthetic or ideological focus and insisted on an individualistic approach to their arts. 3) Despite the flaws of the renaissance literature and arts as a result of the particular circumstances of that age (such as being crippled by ethnic provincialism, white patronage and lack of literary and artistic originality), the Harlem Renaissance as a movement of art and literature has redefined black literature, drama, music as well as painting and sculpture. The renaissance has paved the way for the further development of the later black literature and arts by opening doors to the white mainstream intelligentsia for future generations of black writers and artists and by enormously inspiring them. Despite the negligible impact of the renaissance on the black masses in the short term, the Harlem Renaissance as an intellectual movement has ingrained the renascent race consciousness and racial pride in the black intellectuals, the"New Negro"writers and artists as well as the black middle class. Despite the fact that the renaissance as a sociopolitical movement failed to achieve the social and political goals envisioned by the older black intellectuals, and despite the fact that the black intellectuals and the"New Negro"writers and artists ignored the social and economic realities of its day, they made serious attempts to use black culture and arts as the weapon to improve the racial situation and fight for racial equality and justice. The failure of the Harlem Renaissance in this regard has left invaluable legacy to future black civil rights fighters. 4) The Harlem Renaissance marked a point of change in African American culture and symbolized African Americans'cultural and racial awakening.The present thesis probes into the Harlem Renaissance from a variety of aspects, first tracing the historical context of the Harlem Renaissance in which the renaissance emerged and came to full bloom, then examining the significant developments of various artistic categories of the renaissance, namely black literature, theatre, music and visual arts, and finally analyzing the significance and legacy of the renaissance as a movement of art and literature as well as an intellectual and sociopolitical movement. It is hoped that this thesis will contribute to the further research on the Harlem Renaissance ----- a highly significant and far-reaching yet extremely complex and controversial event in African American culture -----thereby leading to a better understanding of African Americans'continuous fight for civil rights and racial equality and of their contributions to American society in the field of culture and literature and arts.