About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-10019512054X

ISBN-139780195120547

eBay Product ID (ePID)21038279708

Product Key Features

Number of Pages304 Pages

Publication NameNew Red Negro : the Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year1999

SubjectAmerican / African American, Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism, Poetry, Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism, Ethnic Studies / African American Studies

TypeTextbook

AuthorJames Edward Smethurst

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism, Political Science, Social Science

SeriesRace and American Culture Ser.

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.2 in

Item Weight21.2 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.3 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceCollege Audience

LCCN98-017128

Reviews"Smethurst fills a gap in the study of African American literature....Extensive notes on the text and bibliography provide insight into Smethurst's sources and analysis and provide a basis for further scholarly examination of the period and its issues."--Choice, "The New Red Negro is a powerful narrative of the evolution of a single genre. It is also a long-overdue truth-telling that documents central links between African-American poetry and the Communist left.... Each aspect of the [book] is carried out with an impressively lucid writing style and ahighly polished means of documentation."--Against the Current, "Smethurst fills a gap in the study of African American literature....Extensive notes on the text and bibliography provide insight into Smethurst's sources and analysis and provide a basis for further scholarly examination of the period and its issues."-- Choice, "Smethurst fills a gap in the study of African American literature....Extensive notes on the text and bibliography provide insight into Smethurst's sources and analysis and provide a basis for further scholarly examination of the period and its issues."--Choice"Smethurst fills a gap in the study of African American literature....Extensive notes on the text and bibliography provide insight into Smethurst's sources and analysis and provide a basis for further scholarly examination of the period and its issues."--Choice"The New Red Negro is a powerful narrative of the evolution of a single genre. It is also a long-overdue truth-telling that documents central links between African-American poetry and the Communist left.... Each aspect of the [book] is carried out with an impressively lucid writing style and a highly polished means of documentation."--Against the Current, "The New Red Negro is a powerful narrative of the evolution of a singlegenre. It is also a long-overdue truth-telling that documents central linksbetween African-American poetry and the Communist left.... Each aspect of the[book] is carried out with an impressively lucid writing style and a highlypolished means of documentation."--Against the Current

TitleLeadingThe

Table Of ContentIntroduction: Of the Coming of the New Red Negro1. African-American Poetry, Ideology, and the Left during the 1930s and 1940s from the Third Period to the Popular Front and Beyond2. "The Strong Men Gittin' Stronger": Sterling Brown and the Representation and Re-creation of the Southern Folk Voice3. "Adventures of a Social Poet": Langston Hughes in the 1930s4. "I Am Black and I Have Seen Black Hands": The Narratorial Consciousness and Constructions of the Folk in 1930s African-American Poetry5. Hughes's Shakespeare in Harlem and the Rise of a Popular Neomodernism6. Hysterical Ties: Gwendolyn Brooks and the Rise of a High Neomodernism7. The Popular Front, World War II, and the Rise of Neomodernism in African-American Poetry of the 1940sConclusion: "Sullen Bakeries of Total Recall"NotesWorks ConsultedIndex

SynopsisThe New Red Negro surveys African-American poetry from the onset of the Depression to the early days of the Cold War. It considers the relationship between the thematic and formal choices of African-American poets and organized ideology from the proletarian early 1930s to the neo-modernist late 1940s. This study examines poetry by writers across the spectrum: canonical, less well-known, and virtually unknown. The ideology of theCommunist Left as particularly expressed through cultural institutions of the literary Left significantly influenced the shape of African-American poetry in the 1930s and 40s, as well as the content. One result ofthis engagement of African-American writers with the organized Left was a pronounced tendency to regard the re-created folk or street voice as the authentic voice--and subject--of African-American poetry. Furthermore, a masculinist rhetoric was crucial to the re-creation of this folk voice. This unstable yoking of cultural nationalism, integrationism, and internationalism within a construct of class struggle helped to shape a new relationship of African-American poetry tovernacular African-American culture. This relationship included the representation of African-American working class and rural folk life and its cultural products ostensibly from the mass perspective.It also included the dissemination of urban forms of African-American popular culture, often resulting in mixed media high- low hybrids., The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946 surveys African American poetry between the onset of the Depression and the early days of the Cold War. The New Red Negro considers the relationship between the thematic and formal choices of African American poets and organized ideology from the "proletarian" early 1930s to the "neo-modernist" late 1940s. This study examines poetry by writers who are canonical, less well-known, and virtually unknown., The New Red Negro surveys African-American poetry from the onset of the Depression to the early days of the Cold War. It considers the relationship between the thematic and formal choices of African-American poets and organized ideology from the proletarian early 1930s to the neo-modernist late 1940s. This study examines poetry by writers across the spectrum: canonical, less well-known, and virtually unknown. The ideology of the Communist Left as particularly expressed through cultural institutions of the literary Left significantly influenced the shape of African-American poetry in the 1930s and 40s, as well as the content. One result of this engagement of African-American writers with the organized Left was a pronounced tendency to regard the re-created folk or street voice as the authentic voice--and subject--of African-American poetry. Furthermore, a masculinist rhetoric was crucial to the re-creation of this folk voice. This unstable yoking of cultural nationalism, integrationism, and internationalism within a construct of class struggle helped to shape a new relationship of African-American poetry to vernacular African-American culture. This relationship included the representation of African-American working class and rural folk life and its cultural products ostensibly from the mass perspective. It also included the dissemination of urban forms of African-American popular culture, often resulting in mixed media high- low hybrids.

LC Classification NumberPS310.N4S64 1999