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Fiction, Modern
Literary genre that includes short stories and novels, in which African Americans have played a significant role, particularly in the twentieth century.
While modern African American fiction has been characterized by a variety of styles and themes, it centers primarily on the question of identity. Throughout the twentieth century, literature has offered an artisticresponse to social changes as blacks have attempted to reconcile their unique past with American mainstream culture.
Works of fiction by such African American authors as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison embody the struggle of blacks for self-knowledge and social identity—both as Africans and as Americans. Many works of African American fiction combine folk traditions, black speech and dialect, and modernist literary techniques. Combined, these have produced a distinct body of literature that reflects the increasingly diverse social contexts in which African Americans have found themselves throughout the constantly changing twentieth century.
The Harlem Renaissance
Literary critics equate the rise of modern African American fiction with the blossoming of what is known as the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s. During that period, large numbers of blacks moved from the South to major industrial cities in the North during the Great Migration. As a result, cities such as New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Chicago became centers of African American culture.
In New York's Harlem neighborhood, black intellectuals, writers, and artists formed an active and engaging community in which new modes of black expression flourished. Writers were able to share ideas and experiences with other African Americans from vastly different backgrounds. They also found support and patronage, and by participating in such a well-recognized artistic community, they established legitimacy for their careers. The sense of community established by the Harlem Renaissance was passed down throughout the century, as writers mentored and inspired succeeding generations of aspiring artists.
Sources of Inspiration
The civil rights leader, writer, and intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois was a defining force in the new artistic movement. His book, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), struck at the heart of the issue of racial identity. In this collection of prose, Du Bois eloquently describes a sense of “double consciousness” by which a black person “ever feels his two-ness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body.” It was this philosophy that inspired the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, setting before them the task of uniting these two identities in the new century.
Another prominent and influential figure was the Jamaican-born Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey, who took a different position on the question of African American identity. Garvey endorsed racial loyalty and pride but with a separatist tone. He felt, as did Du Bois, that blacks should embrace their African heritage, but Garvey promoted emigration to Africa, while Du Bois did not.
Yet another important figure was Alain Locke, a philosopher and cultural critic who rejected and accepted parts of Du Bois's and Garvey's positions on black identity and its relation to literature. Locke was particularly influential in arguing against Du Bois' position that all black art should be political in purpose. Locke argued that art based in politics would become second class art.
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