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Focusing on the years from 1922 to 1938, this book revisits an important moment in black cultural history to explore how visual elements were used in poems, novels, and photography to undermine existing stereotypes. Miriam Thaggert identifies and analyzes an early form of black American modernism characterized by a heightened level of experimentation with visual and verbal techniques for narrating and representing blackness. The work of the writers and artists under discussion reflects the creative tension between the intangibility of some forms of black expression, such as spirituals, and the materiality of the body evoked by other representations of blackness, such as “Negro” dialect. By paying special attention to the contributions of photographers and other visual artists who have not been discussed in previous accounts of black modernism, Thaggert expands the scope of our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance and contributes to a growing recognition of the importance of visual culture as a distinct element within, and not separate from, black literary studies. Thaggert trains her critical eye on the work of James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, George Schuyler, Carl Van Vechten, James Van Der Zee, and Aaron Siskind—artists who experimented with narrative and photographic techniques in order to alter the perception of black images and to question and reshape how one reads and sees the black body. Examining some of the more problematic authors and artists of black modernism, she challenges entrenched assumptions about black literary and visual representations of the early to mid twentieth century. Thaggert concludes her study with a close look at the ways in which Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance were reimagined and memorialized in two notable texts—Wallace Thurman’s 1932 satire Infants of the Spring and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s controversial 1969 exhibition “Harlem on My Mind: The Cultural Capital of Black America, 1900–1968.”

African Americans in art --- African Americans in literature --- Afro-Americains dans l'art --- Afro-Americans in literature --- Afro-Amerikanen in de kunst --- Afro-Amerikanen in de literatuur --- Afro-Américains dans la littérature --- Amerikaanse zwarten in de literatuur --- Art dans la littérature --- Art in literature --- Black Americans in literature --- Harlem Renaissance --- Kunst in de literatuur --- Negroes in literature --- Noirs américains dans la littérature --- Perception visuelle dans la littérature --- Visual perception in literature --- Visuele waarneming in de literatuur --- Zwarte Amerikanen in de literatuur --- American literature --- African American authors --- History and criticism --- African American art --- 20th century --- African Americans --- Intellectual life --- Modernism (Literature) --- United States --- Johnson, James Weldon --- Criticism and interpretation --- Larsen, Nella --- Schuyler, George Samuel --- Van Vechten, Carl --- Siskind, Aaron --- Littérature américaine --- Noirs américains --- Auteurs noirs américains --- Histoire et critique --- Dans la littérature --- Dans l'art --- Vie intellectuelle --- 20e siècle

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Negative stereotypes of African Americans have long been disseminated through the visual arts. This original and incisive study examines how black writers use visual tropes as literary devices to challenge readers' conceptions of black identity. Lena Hill charts two hundred years of African American literary history, from Phillis Wheatley to Ralph Ellison, and engages with a variety of canonical and lesser-known writers. Chapters interweave literary history, museum culture, and visual analysis of numerous illustrations with close readings of Booker T. Washington, Gwendolyn Bennett, Zora Neale Hurston, Melvin Tolson, and others. Together, these sections register the degree to which African American writers rely on vision - its modes, consequences, and insights - to demonstrate black intellectual and cultural sophistication. Hill's provocative study will interest scholars and students of African American literature and American literature more broadly.

African Americans in art --- African Americans in literature --- Afro-Americains dans l'art --- Afro-Americans in literature --- Afro-Amerikanen in de kunst --- Afro-Amerikanen in de literatuur --- Afro-Américains dans la littérature --- Amerikaanse zwarten in de literatuur --- Black Americans in literature --- Harlem Renaissance --- Negroes in literature --- Noirs américains dans la littérature --- Zwarte Amerikanen in de literatuur --- African Americans --- American literature --- Blacks --- Black identity --- Blackness (Race identity) --- Negritude --- Race identity of blacks --- Racial identity of blacks --- Ethnicity --- Race awareness --- English literature --- Agrarians (Group of writers) --- African American intellectuals --- Afro-Americans in art --- Negroes in art --- Intellectual life --- African American authors&delete& --- History and criticism --- Race identity --- African American authors --- Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt --- Criticism and interpretation --- Washington, Booker Taliaferro --- Hurston, Zora Neale --- Tolson, Melvin Beaunorus --- Ellison, Ralph Waldo --- African Americans in literature. --- African Americans in art. --- History and criticism. --- Race identity. --- Intellectual life. --- Race identity of Black people --- Racial identity of Black people --- Black persons --- Negroes --- Ethnology --- Black people