Professional Documents
Culture Documents
African-American Literature and Other Minorities: Olaudah Equiano (1789) - in The 19
African-American Literature and Other Minorities: Olaudah Equiano (1789) - in The 19
context of American literature. Present since slavery times, its emergence and power
walks parallel to a slow and difficult process of fighting for freedom, self-awareness and
cultural consciousness.
The first books written by Blacks were the slave narratives from colonial times like
OLAUDAH EQUIANO (1745-1797) and his The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
born a slave and escaped to the North, became a very famous antislavery leader and
American Blacks and called public attention to the Negro problem. However, it was
not until the HARLEM RENAISSANCE that works of true literary value were first
produced. This was a movement of African American writers connected with the
Harlem jazz clubs of the 20s and 30s. Their works were a vindication of their own
and COUNTEE CULLEN (1903-1946) are the three most important poets of the
movement.
From the Depression to the 1960s three major figures stand out: Richard Wright,
Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin. In Native Son (1940), RICHARD WRIGHT (1908-
1960) used naturalistic techniques to describe the social and psychological pressures on
his black hero. RALPH ELLISON (1914-1994) used in Invisible Man (1952) the
metaphor of invisibility to talk about black people as seen by white society. JAMES
BALDWIN (1924-1987) wrote moving fiction and essays about the black problem and
also about homosexuality: Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), Another Country (1962).
Wright and Ellison are examples of opposite stands in a debate that is always present
when talking about African-American literature: to what extent must art be a political
weapon used to improve the status of African-Americans or mere art, just considered
from an aesthetic point of view. Following this dichotomy, one could distinguish two
lines in African American literature: one that is more political and combative, which
uses art as a political weapon (and where one could find Wright, Baraka, Morrison or
movie-makers like Spike Lee), and another one which stresses aesthetics and which,
In the 1960s IMAMU AMIRI BARAKA (Leroi Jones, 1934- ) led the Black Arts
Movement with powerful poetry and drama. Black awareness, political use of art, the
search for Black English (called Ebonics) and a challenge to white tradition and forms
are some of the features of a movement that also includes other writers like ED
(1930-1965) wrote A Raisin in the Sun (1959), the first play by a black woman produced
on Broadway.
From the 1970s to the present, African-American writing has known its best
moments with female writers like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. TONI MORRISON
(1931- ) has written novels which, although with clear political meaning, are
consummate works of art. She wrote The Bluest Eye in 1970, and later other longer
novels like Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977) and Beloved (1987), in which she
employs the dreamlike techniques of magical realism. In 1993 she won the Nobel Prize
for Literature. ALICE WALKER (1944- ) has long been associated with feminism,
presenting black existence from the female perspective. She uses a kind of lyrical
realism to center on the dreams and failures of accessible, credible people. The Color
Purple is her most famous work, an epistolary dialect novel which tells the story of the
love between two poor black sisters. Some interesting contemporary African-American
poets are RITA DOVE (1952- ), MAYA ANGELOU (1928- ), and ISHMAEL REED
(1938-).
Other minorities
minorities, who write about their own cultural difference and about the difficulties in
Native Americans:
Asian-Americans:
o CATHY SONG (1955- ) and LI-YOUNG-LEE (1957- ) are poets who
o AMY TAN (1952- ): The Joy Luck Club (1989), a novel about two
appreciate.
a Pulitzer Prize for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989).
de La Mancha of which nombre no quiero remembrearme, viva, not so long ago, uno
de esos gentlemen who always tienen una lanza in the rack, una buckler antigua, a
skinny caballo y un grayhound para el chase. A cazuela with ms beef than mutn,
carne choppeada para la dinner, un omelet pa los Sbados, lentil pa los Viernes, y
algn pigeon como delicacy especial pa los Domingos, consuman tres cuarers de su