美国黑人文学

Langston Hughes1.LifeGeneral idea: James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.Life experience:Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in Lincoln, Illinois, that Hughes began writing poetry. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. During these years, he held odd jobs as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York.2.Works(1) Poetry collections∙The Weary Blues, Knopf, 1926∙Fine Clothes to the Jew, Knopf, 1927∙The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations, 1931∙Dear Lovely Death, 1931∙The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, Knopf, 1932∙Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play, Golden Stair Press, N.Y., 1932∙Let America Be America Again, 1938∙Shakespeare in Harlem, Knopf, 1942∙Freedom's Plow, 1943∙Fields of Wonder, Knopf, 1947∙One-Way Ticket, 1949∙Montage of a Dream Deferred, Holt, 1951∙Selected Poems of Langston Hughes, 1958∙Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz, Hill & Wang, 1961∙The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times, 1967∙The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Knopf, 1994(2) Novels and short story collections∙Not Without Laughter. Knopf, 1930∙The Ways of White Folks. Knopf, 1934∙Simple Speaks His Mind. 1950∙Laughing to Keep from Crying, Holt, 1952∙Simple Takes a Wife. 1953∙Sweet Flypaper of Life, photographs by Roy DeCarava. 1955∙Tambourines to Glory 1958∙The Best of Simple. 1961∙Simple's Uncle Sam. 1965∙Something in Common and Other Stories. Hill & Wang, 1963∙Short Stories of Langston Hughes. Hill & Wang, 1996(3) Non-fiction books∙The Big Sea. New York: Knopf, 1940∙Famous American Negroes. 1954∙I Wonder as I Wander. New York: Rinehart & Co., 1956∙ A Pictorial History of the Negro in America, with Milton Meltzer.1956∙Famous Negro Heroes of America. 1958∙Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP. 1962(4) Major plays∙Mule Bone, with Zora Neale Hurston. 1931∙Mulatto. 1935 (renamed The Barrier, an opera, in 1950)∙Troubled Island, with William Grant Still. 1936∙Little Ham. 1936∙Emperor of Haiti. 1936∙Don't You Want to be Free? 1938∙Street Scene, contributed lyrics. 1947∙Tambourines to glory. 1956∙Simply Heavenly. 1957∙Black Nativity. 1961∙Five Plays by Langston Hughes. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963.∙Jericho-Jim Crow. 1964(5) Books for children∙Popo and Fifina, with Arna Bontemps. 1932∙The First Book of the Negroes. 1952∙The First Book of Jazz. 1954∙Marian Anderson: Famous Concert Singer. with Steven C. Tracy 1954∙The First Book of Rhythms. 1954∙The First Book of the West Indies. 1956∙First Book of Africa. 1964∙Black Misery. Illustrated by Arouni. 1969, reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1994.3.Sample:The Negro Speaks of Rivers(1)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 to New 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.(2) Analysis: “The 1920s were the years of Manhattan’s black Renaissance. . . .White people began to come to Harlem in droves. Forseveral years they packed the expensive Cotton Club on Lenox Avenue. But I was never there, because the Cotton Club was a Jim Crow club for gangsters and monied whites. They were not cordial to Negro patronage, unless you were a celebrity like Bojangles. So Harlem Negroes did not like the Cotton Club and never appreciated its Jim Crow policy in the very heart of their dark community. Nor did ordinary Negroes like the growing influx of whites toward Harlem after sundown, flooding the little cabarets and bars where formerly only colored people laughed and sang, and where now the strangers were given the best ringside tables to sit and stare at the Negro customers—like amusing animals in a zoo.(3) His style: Unlike other notable black poets of the period, Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America, he wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter and language itself.He would also use humor, loneliness, and despair, to imitate the sound of blues and jazz music with words.4. Conclusion(1) Hughes famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue" which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue".(2) In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New Y ork City, has been given landmark status by the New Y ork City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed "Langston Hughes Place."(3) Hughes is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in "Montage of a Dream Deferred." His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.。