Black American Literature

Black American LiteratureThe Black American Literature can also called African-American literature, is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent.1.Characteristics and themesIn broad terms, African-American literature can be defined as writings by people of African descent living in the United States. It is highly varied. African-American literature has generally focused on the role of African Americans within the larger American society and what it means to be an American. All African-American study "speaks to the deeper meaning of the African-American presence in this nation. This presence has always been a test case of the nation's claims tofreedom, democracy, equality, the inclusiveness of all." African-Americanliterature explores the issues of freedom and equality long denied to Blacks in the United States, along with further themes such as African American culture, racism, religion, slavery, a sense of home and more.2.History1)Early African American literatureAfrican American history predates早于the emergence of the United States as an independent country, and African-American literature has similarly类似的deep roots.Lucy Terry is the author of the oldest known piece of African-American literature: "Bars Fight". Although written in 1746, the poem was notpublished until 1855, when it was included in Josiah Holland's History ofWestern Massachusetts. The poet Phillis Wheatley (1753–84) published herbook Poems on Various Subjects in 1773, three years before Americanindependence. Born in Senegal, Wheatley was captured and sold into slaveryat the age of seven. Brought to America, she was owned by a Bostonmerchant. By the time she was sixteen, she had mastered her new languageof English. Her poetry was praised by many of the leading figures of theAmerican Revolution, including George Washington, who thanked her for apoem written in his honor. Some whites found it hard to believe that a Blackwoman could write such refined poetry. Wheatley had to defend herself incourt to prove that she had written her work. Some critics cite Wheatley'ssuccessful defense as the first recognition of African-American literature.Another early African-American author was Jupiter Hammon (1711–1806?). Hammon, considered the first published Black writer inAmerica, published his poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ withPenitential Cries" as a broadside in early 1761. In 1778 he wrote an ode toPhillis Wheatley, in which he discussed their shared humanity and commonbonds.In 1786, Hammon gave his "Address to the Negroes of the State of NewYork". Writing at the age of 76 after a lifetime of slavery, Hammon said, "If weshould ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for beingblack, or for being slaves." He also promoted the idea of a gradualemancipation as a way to end slavery.[10] Hammon is thought to have been aslave until his death. His speech was later reprinted by several abolitionistgroups.William Wells Brown (1814–84) and Victor Séjour (1817–74) producedthe earliest works of fiction小说by African-American writers. Séjour wasborn free in New Orleans and moved to France at the age of 19. There hepublished his short story "Le Mulâtre" ("The Mulatto") in 1837. It is the firstknown fiction by an African American, but as it was written in French andpublished in a French journal, it had apparently no influence on laterAmerican literature. Séjour never returned to African-American themes in hissubsequent works.Brown, on the other hand, was a prominent abolitionist废除死刑者, lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born intoslavery in the South, Brown escaped to the North, where he worked forabolitionist causes and was a prolific多产的writer. Brown wrote Clotel; or,The President's Daughter (1853), considered to be the first novel written byan African American. It was based on the persistent rumor that presidentThomas Jefferson had fathered a daughter with his slave Sally Hemings. Thenovel was first published in England.The first African-American novel published in the United States wasHarriet Wilson's Our Nig (1859). It expressed the difficulties of lives ofnorthern free Blacks.2)Slave narratives奴隶叙事(19世纪中期)A genre [ˈʒɔnrə]n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格of African-American literature that developed in the middle of the 19th century is the slave narrative, accounts writtenby fugitive slaves逃亡奴隶about their lives in the South. At the time, thecontroversy争论over slavery led to impassioned literature on both sides of the issue, with novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin(1852) (written by 斯托夫人)representing the abolitionist view of the evils of slavery. The "Anti-Tom" novels were written by southern writers in support of slavery and southern society, and inopposition to the northern portrayals描绘. An example is William Gilmore Simms, but women were prominently represented among the bestselling novelists: for instance, Mary Eastman and xxx.The slave narratives became integral [ˈintigrəl]a.构成整体所必需的，基本的toAfrican-American literature. Some 6,000 former slaves from North America and the Caribbean wrote accounts of their lives, with about 150 of these published as separate books or pamphlets. Slave narratives can be broadly categorized into threedistinct forms: tales of religious redemption[riˈdempʃən]n.赎罪, tales to inspire theabolitionist struggle, and tales of progress. The tales written to inspire the abolitionist struggle are the most famous because they tend to have a strong autobiographical motif自传序. Many of them are now recognized as the most literary of all 19th-century writings by African Americans, with two of the best-known being Frederick Douglass's autobiography and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (1861).3)Post-slavery era后奴隶制时代After the end of slavery and the American Civil War, a number of African American authors continued to write nonfiction纪实works about thecondition of African Americans in the country.Among the most prominent of these writers is W. E. B. Du Bois 杜波依斯(1868–1963), one of the original founders of the NAACP有色人种协进会. At the turn of the century, Du Bois published a highly influential collection ofessays titled The Souls of Black Folk《黑人的灵魂》. The book's essays on racewere groundbreaking and drew from Du Bois's personal experiences todescribe how African Americans lived in American society. The bookcontains Du Bois's famous quote: "The problem of the twentieth century isthe problem of the color-line." Du Bois believed that African Americansshould, because of their common interests, work together to battle prejudice 偏见and inequity不公正.Another prominent author of this time period is Booker T. Washington布克·华盛顿(1856–1915), who in many ways represented opposite views from Du Bois. Washington was an educator and the founder of the Tuskegee Institute塔斯基吉学院, a Black college in Alabama. Among his published works are Up From Slavery (1901), The Future of the American Negro (1899), Tuskegee and Its People(1905), and My Larger Education(1911). In contrast to Du Bois, who adopted a more confrontational 对抗性attitude toward ending racial strife冲突in America, Washington believed that Blacks should first lift themselves up and prove themselves the equal of whites before asking for an end to racism. While this viewpoint was popular among some Blacks (and many whites) at the time, Washington's political views would later fall out of fashion.A third writer who gained attention during this period in the US, though not a US citizen, was the Jamaican牙买加Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), a newspaper publisher, journalist, and crusader [kru:ˈseidə]n.十字军参加者for Pan Africanism through his organization the Universal Negro Improvement Association and AfricanCommunities League (UNIA). He encouraged people of African ancestry to look favorably upon their ancestral homeland. He wrote a number of essays published as editorials in the UNIA house organ the Negro World newspaper. Some of his lecture material and other writings were compiled and published as nonfiction books by his second wife Amy Jacques Garvey as the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey Or, Africa for the Africans (1924) and More Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (1977).Paul Laurence Dunbar,保尔·劳伦斯·邓巴who often wrote in the rural, black dialect[ˈdaiəlekt]n.方言，土语of the day, was the first African American poet to gain national prominence突出. His first book of poetry, Oak and Ivy, was published in 1893. Much of Dunbar's work, such as When Malindy Sings (1906), which includes photographs taken by the Hampton Institute Camera Club, and Joggin' Erlong(1906) provide revealing glimpses into the lives of rural African-Americans of the day. Though Dunbar died young, he was a prolific poet, essayist, novelist(among them The Uncalled, 1898 and The Fanatics, 1901) and short story writer.Even though Du Bois, Washington, and Garvey were the leading African American intellectuals and authors of their time, other African Americanwriters also rose to prominence. Among these is Charles W. Chesnutt查尔斯·契斯纳特, a well-known short story writer and essayist.4)Harlem Renaissance哈莱姆文艺复兴The Harlem Renaissance from 1920 to 1940 brought new attention to African American literature. While the Harlem Renaissance, based in theAfrican American community in Harlem in New York City, existed as a largerflowering of social thought and culture—with numerous Black artists,musicians, and others producing classic works in fields from jazz totheater—the renaissance is perhaps best known for the literature that cameout of it.Among the most famous writers of the renaissance is poet Langston Hughes兰斯顿·休斯. Hughes first received attention in the 1922 poetrycollection, The Book of American Negro Poetry. This book, edited by JamesWeldon Johnson, featured the work of the period's most talented poets(including, among others, Claude McKay, who also published three novels,Home to Harlem, Banjo and Banana Bottom and a collection of short stories).In 1926, Hughes published a collection of poetry, The Weary Blues《萎靡的布鲁斯》, and in 1930 a novel, Not Without Laughter. Perhaps, Hughes' mostfamous poem is "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," 《黑人谈河流》which he wrote asa young teen. His single, most recognized character is Jesse B. Simple, aplainspoken, pragmatic Harlemite whose comedic observations appeared inHughes's columns for the Chicago Defender and the New York Post. SimpleSpeaks His Mind (1950) is, perhaps, the best-known collection of Simplestories published in book form. Until his death in 1967, Hughes publishednine volumes of poetry, eight books of short stories, two novels, and anumber of plays, children's books, and translations.黑人谈河流The Negro Speaks of RiversI've known rivers:I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.My soul has grown deep like the rivers.I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down toNew Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turned all golden in the sunset.I've known rivers:Ancient, dusky rivers.My soul has grown deep like the rivers.黑人谈河流我了解河流：我了解像世界一样的古老的河流，比人类血管中流动的血液更古老的河流。