Black Cultural Expression in the Harlem Renaissance
In the essay "Characteristics of Negro Expression," Zora Neale Hurston outlines some of the features that make African American art culturally unique. It was interesting to apply these principles to works we read out of the Harlem Renaissance; I could really see how a lot of the traits she discusses are common to many of the texts. In this post, I will discuss some of the themes Hurston identified that I found to be very prominent in the texts from this unit. The first characteristic Hurston discusses is drama. Describing the black artist, Hurston writes that "his very words are action words. His interpretation of the English language is in terms of pictures. One act described in terms of another. Hence the rich metaphor and simile." Metaphor and simile are characteristics found in many different styles of poetry, but I can definitely say that the poems we read from the Harlem Renaissance was especially full of these figures of speech. There are many examples of po...