Historical Context
African-American Literary Movements of the Twentieth Century
Twentieth Century African-American literature has been characterized by two
important literary movements: the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts
Movement. The Harlem Renaissance, also referred to as the New Negro Movement,
designates a period during the 1920s in which African-American literature
flourished among a group of writers concentrated in Harlem, New York. Important
writers and works of the Harlem Renaissance include: James Weldon Johnson, who
wrote the novel Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912); Claude McKay,
who wrote the bestselling novel Home to Harlem (1928); Langston Hughes,
who wrote the poetry collection The Weary Blues (1926); and Wallace
Thurman, who wrote the novel The Blacker the Berry (1929). This period
of incredible literary output diminished when the Great Depression of the 1930s
affected the financial status of many African-American writers.
Although she never lived in New York, Bonner is associated with the Harlem Renaissance through her involvement in the "S" Street Salon, a gathering of writers in Washington, D.C., who met regularly at the home of poet Georgia Douglas Johnson. Bonner's portraits of the three major urban centers in which she lived, Boston, Washington, D.C, and Chicago, address similar themes to those works set in Harlem. While in Washington, D.C, Bonner was also affiliated with the Krigwa Players, an African-American organization of dramatists. The majority of Bonner's plays, short stories, and essays were published in two African-American magazines associated with the Harlem Renaissance. The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races (called simply The Crisis) was a monthly publication founded in 1910 by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and originally edited by W. E. B. DuBois. During the 1920s, The Crisis published the works of many young African-American writers of the Harlem Renaissance, such as Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Jean Toomer. Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, a publication of the National Urban League, was also an important promoter of Harlem Renaissance writers.
In the 1960s and 70s, The Black Arts Movement, also referred to as the Black Aesthetic Movement, emerged, embodying values derived from black nationalism and promoting politically and socially significant works, often written in Black English vernacular. Important writers and works of the Black Arts Movement include Imamu Amiri Baraka (also known as LeRoi Jones), Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison.
African-American Theater
The development of African-American theater in the first half of the twentieth
century was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and included the establishment
of theaters devoted to black productions in major cities throughout the United
States. The most prominent Black theaters by mid-century were the American
Negro Theater and the Negro Playwrights' Company. In the post-World War II era,
African-Amencan theater became more overtly political and more specifically
focused on celebrating African-American culture. One of the most prominent
works to emerge from this period was the 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun,
by Lorraine Hansberry.
The Black Arts Movement led to the establishment in 1965 of the Repertory Theater in Harlem, initiated by Amin Baraka. Baraka's award-winning 1964 play, The Dutchman, is among the most celebrated dramatic works of this period. Ntozake Shange's 1977 play, for colored girls who have considered suicide /when the rainbow is enuf, used an expenmental dramatic format to address issues facing Afncan-Amencan women In the 1980s, August Wilson emerged as an important African-Amencan playwright with his Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1985), set in Chicago in the 1920s, about a blues singer and her band.
Literary Style
AllegoryThe Purple Flower is an allegorical play. An allegory is a story in which the characters, settings, and action are meant to be interpreted...
(This entire section contains 671 words.)
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as representative of a social or political situation Allegories frequently provide a moral or lesson about this situation. Thus, Bonner's play is an allegory for race relations m the United States, in which the Us's represent African Americans, and the White Devils represent white Americans. The hill withThe Purple Flower symbolizes the realm of the privileged, while the valley symbolizes the realm of the underprivileged or oppressed. The characters are allegorical figures that represent a variety of attitudes toward these race relations, and their discussion of how to reach the hill symbolizes various debates among African Americans as to how they should go about trying to achieve equality.
Setting: Time and PlaceThe Purple Flower is set in an allegorical time and place that represents the historical position of African Americans in the United States. The place is described in the stage directions as: "Might be here, there or anywhere—or even nowhere." This description indicates that the inequality that characterizes the status of the Us's in relation to the White Devils exists anywhere and everywhere in the world, although it is particularly concerned with black-white racial inequality in the United States. The setting is an open plain, with a hill in the distance, representing Somewhere, atop which The Purple Flower-of-Life-at-Its-Fullest grows It is bounded on the other side by Nowhere. In allegorical terms, the Us's want more than anything to get "Somewhere" in life, while their historical legacy as African Americans is one m which racial oppression has allowed them to get "Nowhere" in life. The valley in which the Us's reside represents the low socioeconomic status of African Americans in the United States, while the hill represents the high socioeconomic status of white Americans; although the Us's (or African Americans) have slaved to build the homes and roads of the White Devils, the White Devils are determined to keep them from living on the hill or seeing The Purple Flower.
The time of the play's action is described as "The Middle-of-things-as-They-are. (Which means the End-of-Things for some of the characters and Begmmng-of-Things for others)" The "middle-of-things-as-they-are" describes current racial relations The end of the play may be the "end-of-thmgs" as they are for both the Us's and the White Devils, if the action taken by Finest Blood results in the birth of the"New Man.'' In other words, it may be the end of the status-quo of unequal racial relations, which would be the beginning-of-things for African Americans if they are able to achieve racial equality.
Characterization
There are two types of characters in The Purple Flower, both of which
are meant to be understood in allegorical terms. The Us's, referred to at one
point as Black Us, represent African Americans, while the White Devils
represent white people who oppress African Americans. Among the White Devils,
there are no individual characters and there is no dialogue. This suggests in
an allegorical sense that, from the perspective of the oppressed race, the
dominant whites represent a mass power block. Among the Us's, who carry the
main action and all of the dialogue in this play, distinctions between
characters are made by type rather than by individual names; characters are
referred to as A Young Us, An Old Us, Another Young Us, An Old Woman, etc.
Allegoncally, each Us represents a particular attitude or belief about the
status of African Americans and how to go about improving their socioeco-nomic
status. Distinctions are made between Young and Old Us's to indicate a
generation gap in thinking about race relations. Interestingly, the Us's are
described in the production notes as not necessarily of African descent- "They
can be as white as the White Devils, as brown as the earth, as black as the
center of a poppy." This suggests that the Us's represent not just African
Americans but oppressed peoples from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Compare and Contrast
1910s:Rachel, by Angelina W. Gnmke, is the first successful stage play by an African-American writer.
1920s: The Harlem Renaissance characterizes a period of flowering of African-Amencan literature and the arts. The Krigwa Players in Washington, D.C., is an association of African-American dramatists of the Harlem Renaissance era.
1930s: The Depression, which began with the stock market crash of 1929, results m economic hardship for writers of the Harlem Renaissance, leading to a decline in literary production and the end of the Harlem Renaissance era.
1950s: The most prominent African-American theaters in the United States include the American Negro Theater and the Negro Playwnghts' Company. A Raisin in the Sun (1959), by Lorraine Hansberry, is the most prominent and widely celebrated play by an African-Amencan writer.
1960s and 1970s: The Black Arts Movement, also called the Black Aesthetic Movement, represents the cutting edge of African-American artistic and literary style and philosophy The Dutchman (1964), by Amin Baraka, is an early prominent theatncal production of the Black Arts Movement. Inspired by, and in part an initiator of, the Black Arts Movement, Baraka establishes the Black Repertory Theater in Harlem. for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf (1977), by Ntozake Shange, is a successful, experimental play, inspired by the Black Arts Movement, addressing issues of concern to African-Amencan women
1980s and 1990s: Numerous black theaters have been established throughout the United States, with many mainstream stages also featuring black theatrical productions. A new generation of African-American writers and artists are greatly influenced by the legacy of the Black Arts Movement. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984), by August Wilson, is the most celebrated play of the 1980s by an African-American writer.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Allen, Carol, Black Women Intellectuals Strategies of Nation, Family, and
Neighborhood in the Works of Pauline Hopkins, Jessie Fauset, and Marita
Bonner, Garland, 1998, pp 11-2, 18,78-9.
Flynn, Joyce, and Joyce Occomy Stricklm, eds., Frye Street and Environs The Collected Works of Marita Bonner, Beacon, 1987, pp xi, xvi, xvm-xix, xxv.
Further Reading
Giovanni, Nikki, ed., Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy like My Sister Kate' Looking at
the Harlem Renaissance Through Poems, Holt, 1996.
This poetry collection contains works by Harlem Renaissance writers such as
Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Amin Baraka, with
discussion of the Harlem Renaissance.
Hatch, James V., ed, Black Theater, U S.A : Forty-five Plays by Black
Americans, 1847-1974, Free Press, 1996.
These plays are by African-American waters, including The Purple Flower,
by Bonner, as well as works by W. E B DuBois, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Langston
Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wnght, James Baldwin, Ntozake Shange, and
Imamu Amin Baraka.
Hayward Gallery of London, Rhapsodies in Black Art of the Harlem
Renaissance, University of California Press, 1997.
This is a catalogue with commentary on artworks of the Harlem Renaissance,
based on the exhibit "Rhapsodies m Black," organized by the Hayward Gallery in
London.
Rodgers, Mane E, The Harlem Renaissance An Annotated Reference Guide for
Student Research, Libraries Unlimited, 1998.
This reference book includes bibliographies of works on the Harlem Renaissance
and African-American art.
Roses, Lorraine Elena, and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph, The Harlem
Renaissance and Beyond. Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers,
1900-1945, G. K Hall, 1990.
This reference work provides biographical information on and overviews of the
works of African-American women writers in the first half of the twentieth
century.
Spencer, Jon Michael, The New Negroes and Their Music: The Success of the
Harlem Renaissance, University of Tennessee Press, 1997.
Spencer's text is a critical discussion of the music of the Harlem Renaissance
in terms of the cultural and historical context of Afncan-Amencan musical
production