www.storymania.com
Storymania Logo

 

 

Essays




Interpreting The Bible by Kurt Kitasaki A satire on the Bible. [5,397 words]
Modernism And The Harlem Rennisance
What Book's Shall I Read? by Buxton This is more like a mini book review, and the title is something Im asking......carry... [435 words]
Ronald Reagan by Skyler Drevan Was he that good? [1,096 words]
Housing Bubble? by Sean Mann Is there a housing bubble about to be burst? [747 words]
Homosexual Agenda: Equality! by Skyler Drevan What gay people are really looking for. [1,647 words]
Mr. Michael Jackson-The King Of Pop by Skyler Drevan Let me explain something to the reviewers who may make ignorant comments ab... [382 words]
The Challenges Of Road Safety In The 21st Century by Kennedy O Obohwemu Quite simple...It issues a call for action...reflective upon ... [1,353 words]
The Biggest Problem Facing Nigeria This Century by Kennedy O Obohwemu An unending battle with a trouble that seems to have settled co... [750 words]
Poetry: Exposed by Steven T I wrote this rant about poetry when I was really frustrated because I had to write a bunch of p... [734 words]
Keeping Your Dignity And Creativity (Getting Published) by Skyler Drevan This is an article on rejection, how to get published a... [2,169 words]
Overcoming The Other by G David Schwartz An essay. [11,150 words]
No Longer A Smoking America by Kevin Myrick I wrote this paper for my college english comp class, and decided it was worthy eno... [1,483 words]
Midnight In The Garden Of Marvin Gaye: The Brilliance And Pathos Of The Final Album Of Soul Music's Greatest Artist. by Brotherman A review of Midnight Love: Marvin gaye's final ... [2,586 words]
I Have My Own Dream... by Karina Lizet Perez - [497 words]
Form A Vision To Success by E Rocco Caldwell This is a speech I am going to give to Junior High Schoolers today 1/16/04 for Martin ... [759 words]
Resolution by G David Schwartz A short essay. [721 words]
Not Enough! by Randall Barfield A short talk about trying to prevent more wife/child abuse. [791 words]
Buying Souls For Fun And Profit by D L B Monk A fully binding contract. Print it out, make deals with your friends (and enemi... [1,611 words]
The Parable Of The Copper Pennies by G David Schwartz A short essay. [1,690 words]
The Best Friends Of Man On Earth by James T Algo Description of close friends. [124 words]
Schindler's List: A Fecal Matter by Robert Levin - [1,047 words]
Punk, Anarchy, Chaos!! by Karina Lizet Perez Its an essay I did for the hell of it cause I was bored but when I was done I LOVED IT!!... [393 words]
Media Is Bad For Children by Thomas Kirchenheiter A debate topic showing why media is bad for children. [151 words]
A Good Vision Demands Keen Insight by E Rocco Caldwell This is a part of a larger work entitled the New Union Standard. [1,302 words]
Gay Marriage Is Constitutional by E Rocco Caldwell - [807 words]
Wal-Mart Wants To Rule The World by E Rocco Caldwell Someone left a message that this article was racist and I would like the site'... [917 words]
My Grandma by Ryan Emerson - [338 words]
Good Advice by David B Doc Byron A dying man's advice to the living. [585 words]
Extreme Panhandling by Skyler Drevan This is an article I wrote about a severe problem that plagues the beautiful city of New Yo... [1,191 words]
Weird Al's Teacher-Like Qualities by NeedhamT Gives an explanation of how I think that Weird Al Yankovic (famous comedic so... [431 words]
The Argument by John Sheirer A moving, humorous story about his parents' only argument excerpted from the author's thus far unp... [708 words]
Socialism Supported by WigginP I, as a regular citizen of the United States, believe that socialism is a good idea (in the... [551 words]
Reading by G David Schwartz - [5,568 words]
Nothing Poesy About It by BhattacharyyaS - [451 words]
Everything's All Right In The Middle East by Robert Levin A mutual solution to the problem of being mortal. [686 words]
Battle Cry by Skyler Drevan Another self discovery made in the middle of a restless night. [438 words]
Glum by Skyler Drevan I think this is self explaning. [207 words]
Recycle This by Robert Levin "I don't even sort and rinse the stuff I keep?" [885 words]
My Mother-My Friend by Penny Groh Part of the eugology for my mother. [343 words]
Anger Drives The World by G David Schwartz This is an essay that speaks about the *importance* of anger, and the misuse of it. [1,712 words]
Stupidity: Its Uses & Abuses by Robert Levin Stupidity is rivaled in its genius only be schizophrenia. [1,337 words]
No Stars For The Eclipse by Robert Levin I thought more interesting work was being done at the Electric Circus back in the '60s... [529 words]
A Collection Of Essays Concerning Mexico by Bob M Ra Several Essays composed for a Latin Studies Class at UIC. [5,770 words]
Tied By The Heart by Jeffrey (George) Winter Does our freedom ensnares us? [1,128 words]
Early Political Conflict In America: Jefferson, Hamilton, And The Washington Administration From 1791 To 1798 by Shelley J Alongi J... [1,526 words]
Things Not To Say To A Pageant Committee by Freelancer Ever dreamed of being in a pageant? Read this essay before heading to... [1,276 words]
Abortion As A Basic Human Right by James Cartwright I wrote this essay for my Contemporary Issues class, explaining why I believe t... [481 words]
Making A Difference by Hanan Al Kindi The role of every human on this earth and the way his/her role affects the society. [377 words]
It Should Be Great by Christina Aspears - [1,377 words]
The Human Spirit by Adam P Nel Are you the one who I'm writing this to? [504 words]
Hhh Insurance by Klangman Rupert Essay. [1,380 words]
Gender As Performance, Age Six: The Mouse Game by Caitlin Conaway I was one confused little child. [1,991 words]
The Miseducation Of Nigeria's Future by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi An essay about the pitiable state of education in Nigeria. [1,077 words]
Vulnerable by Skyler Drevan The middle of the night thoughts. This is a little something based on a seris of unsettling dreams I... [263 words]
The Evil Of The Visa System by Randall Barfield Looking, looking for that Utopia. As always. [479 words]
Thinking About, Faith by M Bradley McCauley This is from a series of essays I wrote about various subjects I was thinking about. It ... [660 words]
The Most Evil Hate Crime by Mike Schiller I have not heard anyone on either side of the debate suggest that the adult world shou... [1,375 words]
Native Americans Of The Northwest Coast by Lissa N Metz-Gomez My term paper for both Archaeology and Prehistory: The Search for Lost ... [2,631 words]
Evolution Vs. The Second Law Of Thermodynamics by Matt Tracy While studying the second law of thermodynamics, I realized some... [1,529 words]
A Reality Check For America by Mike Schiller Charles Rangel wants to wrongfully enslave people of a particular age group, becaus... [870 words]
My Pops by Heather A Sloane This is an essay that I wrote about my dad for my creative writing class. [1,014 words]
What Is Writing? by Jim Taylor My view on writing. [278 words]
Gymnastics by Brandt - [636 words]

Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [8] 9 10 11
TITLE (EDIT)
Modernism And The Harlem Rennisance
DESCRIPTION
An essay on the concept of modernism and the harlem rennisance.
[1,199 words]
AUTHOR
Brotherman
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
-
[December 2004]
AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (15)
A Requiem For Ruby Ellen Daniels (Short Stories) A short story dedicated to my grandmother. [4,307 words]
Anastasia (Short Stories) A love story, dedicated to my uncle.( im gonna work on it more, however) [3,561 words]
Aretha Franklin: An Appreciation (Essays) My tribute to Aretha Franklin. [3,002 words]
Blues For Julia Foster (Short Stories) A short story dedicated to a girl who went to the wrong damm party. [4,184 words]
Ike And Lou's Barbershop (Short Stories) A story dedicated to Sam and terry's barbershop in Tacoma washington. [2,842 words]
Love's In Need Of Love Today (Short Stories) A story about a grandmother and her grandson. [2,655 words]
Midnight In The Garden Of Marvin Gaye: The Brilliance And Pathos Of The Final Album Of Soul Music's Greatest Artist. (Essays) A review of Midnight Love: Marvin gaye's final album. [2,586 words]
Mr Brown, A Mentoring Tale (Short Stories) A story to all of my mentors, who were better men than my father ever was. [2,972 words]
Poem To Joanie (Poetry) - [128 words]
Sunday Morning Drive By Shooting (Poetry) - [140 words]
The Fallen Arc (Short Stories) A story about a Brother with no excuses. Absolutely no excuses. [2,319 words]
The July Tree (Short Stories) A tale about stolen innocence. Based on an initiation I saw when I was 13. [2,126 words] [Literary Fiction]
The Rear View Mirror (Short Stories) A story about a man who blew his chances in life. [2,427 words]
The Wannabe (Short Stories) A story about hip hop fans who want to have everything but the burden. [2,866 words]
We Are Climbing David's Ladder, Soldiers Of The Cross (Short Stories) A story of the evil that men do when they lose their souls. [3,108 words]
Modernism And The Harlem Rennisance
Brotherman

The nature of art will always be in conflict with popular critical demand, because the mere aesthetic of creation itself is given to so many variables and variants, that it is inevitable that it will somehow conflict with the norms of whatever society in which the art is created. And the Harlem Renaissance had more than its fair share of demands put upon it. On its way to being the first major movement in the history of African American Art to synthesize the myth, ritual and structure of black history into various forms, it underwent numerous aesthetic conflicts which centered around race and individual identity. In selected works of painter Palmer Hayden, and poets Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, You can see how artists created a space for their own personal expression by either navigating through or rebelling against the demands of the time.

The primary demanding artistic voice, in relation to the fact that they were tied into the general buying public, was that of the white patron. Now to paint their involvement in the Harlem Renaissance in merely damning terms short changes the complex nature of the personal and financial relationships that they had with the artists that they were supporting. Patrons like Charlotte Osgood Mason and Carl Van Vechten were not only instrumental in getting the work of numerous artists to a broader stage, they provided the financial support in which they could do the work itself. Real estate developer William Harmon established the Harmon Foundation, a program which highlighted African American achievement in the art, literature and various humanities.

But the greater truth was that the patrons, like the public itself, were not interested in the specificities of the art itself as they were in their own set definitions of it. The art exhibitions of the Harmon foundation quickly turned into caricatured formula and the demand of exoticism from whites in other art forms was so great that rarely any work that had themes beyond that proved profitable.

An excellent example of how an artist used the demands of his time and his median to create unique work is Palmer Hayden's " Nous quarte Au Paris" (http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/nousquatre.jpg) On the surface it reeks of stereotypes and racial pandering, with the lips and heads of the card players grotesquely out of proportion with their bodies. But if you look closer, you can see the coolness of their suits, smoothness of their facial demeanor and the sophisticated form of bluffing that comes with the ritual of playing cards, as shown by the response to their received hand. The painting expertly plays to convention and idiosyncratic artistic expression by adopting stereotypical images and giving them a succinctly dignified identity, therefore robbing them of the power to hurt.

Another voice of artistic demand came from one of the most formidable giants in African American Literary History, W.E.B Dubois. One cannot sing enough praises to Dubois's, " the souls of black folk," one of the most sophisticated books ever written about race, and a vital document in the history of American letters. But by the time of the renaissance, the finely nuanced vision of an inter class artistic and cultural utopia that guided his book, had eroded into a cantankerous Marxist dogma blanketed in the rhetoric of racial uplift. There were no guidelines, just rules, and the primary one was to create art to " move the race higher"; which meant an artist couldn't create an image in which white people could constrict as a stereotype.

To many it seemed like a sound policy, but to Langston Hughes it meant suppressing part of his humanity, something that he couldn't live with. In his essay " The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/360.html) Hughes argues for the right for an artist to view the humanity of their environment in whenever terms they see fit. "We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame" Hughes said. " If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too." In response to the Positive image demands of Dubois, Hughes is not arguing for negative portrayals instead of positive ones. He is simply saying that the demands of art supersede and give greater reward than the mere portrayals themselves.

The third and probably most important artistic demand of the Harlem Rennaisance was the ones that the individual artists put on themselves. Here is where an array of factors play a part, from the aforementioned patronage and Dubois's faction, to an artists environment, knowledge of form, sense of self and overall personal well being. You can see those factors in the different and complex structural aesthetics of the poetry of Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. Cullen's quest to be seen in a universal spectrum by using the form of the sonnet is a compelling one, and much of the poetry that he wrote will last as long as people retain an interest in the English language. One cam empathize with his need to break free from the paternalistic stereotypical constraints of race regarding African American artists, especially the ones propagated by the patrons of the Harlem Renaissance at the time. And to describe his poetry as merely raceless overlooks the complex way in which he explored the terms of being a black artist( " Yet do I Marvel") recalled experiences of racism ( " An Incident") and the oh so complex cultural ties that African Americans have with Africa ( " Heritage") (http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/cullen.html)

However, one can see Hughes point when he implicitly mentions Cullen in " Racial Mountain" as an artist in conflict with his color.( Cullen is the black poet Hughes is talking about in the first few paragraphs of the essay). Hughes isn't criticizing Cullen's blackness per-se, as the opening paragraphs seem to indicate. The true message of Hughes's beef with him can be seen in the last sentence of the second to last paragraph of the essay; when he says " An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must never be afraid to do what he might choose". He isn't criticizing Cullen's wide artistic scope, which ranged from Blake to Keats, he is just saying that it was a shame that that wide scope couldn't include the beauty of the jazz and the spirituals. It is in his art which provides the most sterling example of his aesthetic; as in poems such as Jazzonia, The Weary Blues, The Negro Speaks of rivers and Theme for English b, Hughes displays a poetic gift steeped in the nuances of Jazz, Gospel, Blues, Spirituals, Work Songs and Walt Whitman's free form style( which in itself was influenced by spirituals). (http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Langston_Hughes)

The constraints of environment play a part in the creation of any art work as well as the form itself.The unique environmental obstacles against which the artists of the Harlem Renaissance labored to create not only influenced the forms of art in that movement; these obstacles were one of the factors which contribute to the enduring beauty of this important chapter in the history of American Art.

      

 

READER'S REVIEWS (1)
DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.

"I'm have litl dog & cat! I want to share with you were you'll be find this for your pets: collar nice buy cat buy nice cat collar collar buy cat nice nice collar buy cat nice collar cat buy nice cat collar buy buy quality cat collar nice buy cat collar nice buy collar cat dog collar " -- newboy, Kiev, Kiev, USA.

TO DELETE UNWANTED REVIEWS CLICK HERE! (SELECT "MANAGE TITLE REVIEWS" ACTION)

Submit Your Review for Modernism And The Harlem Rennisance
Required fields are marked with (*).
Your e-mail address will not be displayed.

Your Name*     E-mail*

City     State/Province     Country

Your Review (please be constructive!)*


Please Enter Code*:

Submit Your Rating for Modernism And The Harlem Rennisance

Worst     1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     Best

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2004 Brotherman
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
July 2004
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
2855
 

Copyright © 1998-2001 Storymania Technologies Limited. All Rights Reserved.