African+American+Criticism

 toc

 STARTS WITH SLAVERY = African - American Criticism =  Challenges established ideologies, racial boundaries, and racial prejudice. It also acknowledges and incorporates the writing of past and often suppressed and forgotten African-American literature, the major historical movements that have influenced African-American writings, and both historical and current attitudes towards African-American writing themselves (Bressler 210). ==Historical Development - ==  "We must work within social, political, and educational systems already established by the dominant white culture."-Washington  "Only by working together, can African-Americans fight for equality and justice." -DuBois  Since its beginnings, African-American literature has been shaped by the enslavement of blacks in colonial America by white Western Europeans and the suppression of the black race that follows. An awareness that black experience is historical and cultural: that it has ties to African language, cultural practices and attitudes, that it is formed through the experience of slavery and violence, that it has endured a long and troubled negotiation with white culture, so that black aesthetic production in white cultures is marked by white culture positively and negatively. For example, Phillis Wheatley was accused of not being an author of her work because African-Americans are not capable of being intelligent, distinguished and of "eloquent prose. Until the time of DuBois, Washington was among the premier of black activists. Washington's views "racial uplift" for the masses and maintain that African-American should "pick themselves up by their own bootstraps" before they ask for social or political justice. Dubois disagreed with many of Washington's opinions, but also garnered a respect for him as one of the first true black intellectuals who tried to help the black race. DuBois asserted, that the African-American society must stand up and change the world and echoes a cry for equality, insisting that art should become a tool in the struggle for social justice.

==Harlem Renaissance == THE GREAT MIGRATION  The end of the American Civil War in 1865 ushered in an era of increased education and employment opportunities for black Americans. This created the first black middle class in America, and its members began expecting the same lifestyle afforded to white Americans. But in 1896, racial equality was delivered a crushing blow when the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case declared racial segregation to be constitutionally acceptable. This created even harsher conditions for African-Americans, particularly in some Southern states that sought to minimize the equality that former slaves and their descendants might aspire toward. The South also became gradually more and more economically depressed as boll weevils began to infest cotton crops. This reduced the amount of labor needed in the South.  As a result, blacks began to head to the Northern United States by the millions. Racism, while still a serious obstacle, was considered much less brutal there than in the South. In addition, the North granted all adult men with the right to vote; provided better educational advancement for African-Americans and their children; and offered greater job opportunities as a result of World War I and the industrial revolution. This phenomenon, known as the Great Migration, brought more than seven million African-Americans to the North, and especially Harlem, which became a "progressive force" in society, leading toward black equality with whites. The two leading literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance are **Langston Hughes** and **Zora Neale Hurston**. Hughes asserts that African-Americans should embrace their blackness and their cultural integrity, qualities Hughes sees in lower-class black life, not middle or upper class while Hurston usually avoids fiction of protest, choosing to write literature that affirms the black consciousness. ==<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">World <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">War <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Two == <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 150%;">A New Beginning <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 170%; text-align: left;">African-American soldiers played a significant role in World War II. More than half a million served in Europe. Despite the numbers they faced racial discrimination: prior to the war the military maintained a racially segregated force. In studies by the military, blacks were often classified as unfit for combat and were not allowed on the front lines. They were mostly given support duties, and were not allowed in units with white soldiers. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 170%; text-align: left;"> That changed in 1941, when pressure from African-American civil rights leaders convinced the government to set up all-black combat units, as experiments. They were designed to see if African-American soldiers could perform military tasks on the same level as white soldiers. After fighting for their country as did white men and women, black men returned home from the war to face mounting racism in the South. Leaving the Southern states, black men and women migrated to the Northern cities, seeking equality and economic opportunity.(Bressler, 215)

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Civil <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Rights <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Era == <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 150%;">media type="youtube" key="hHonvu-HxqE" height="300" width="397" <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 170%;"> The post-war era marked a period of unprecedented energy against the second class citizenship accorded to African Americans in many parts of the nation. Resistance to racial segregation and discrimination with strategies such as civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance, marches, protests, boycotts, "freedom rides," and rallies received national attention as newspaper, radio, and television reporters and cameramen documented the struggle to end racial inequality. There were also continuing efforts to legally challenge segregation through the courts.

==<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 170%;"><span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 170%;">KEY <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 170%;">TERMS == <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 170%;">__**Noematic**__--African American Literature is more interesting for its complexities of the world it reveals.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 170%;"> __**Noetic**__--African American Literature is less interesting for its subjective qualities concerning what it perceives.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 150%;">When reading a text through the lens of African-Americans theory and criticism, consider the following questions:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Is race evident?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Who are the marginalized characters? What color is their skin?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Who are the oppressors?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">What are the means of oppression?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">What does it mean to be black in this text?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">What is the dominant hegemony?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Are the marginalized characters aware of their oppression?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">What are the ties of the black characters to African language and cultural practices?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Who speaks for blacks?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Are any characters marginalized through silence?

[1]Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 210. Print [2] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 211. Print [3] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 212. Print [4] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 213. Print [5] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 214. Print [6] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 215. Print [7] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 216. Print [8] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 217. Print [9] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 218. Print