原创英语论文范文-The African-American Literary Tradition

The African-American Literary Tradition

African-American Literature is the important and unique part of the American literature. It is a unique literature because it is all tied up with the unique experience of African-American people and the phrase of their steady growth (Chang Yaoxing 2005: 5

20). The uniqueness of the African-American is formed by various factors. One of the essential causes is the history of slavery and the marginal status in the white-dominated Culture. Double-Consciousness, a birthmark ironed in many African-American writers, forces the writers to find an effective way to voice their own mind and gain the cultural recognition, and Blackness is the characteristic of their literature to strive for survival in the society. The Black Aesthetics—Signifying becomes the unique way to express the conflicts the Black faced in the world and it develops quickly and is employed efficiently. Also, the recurrent theme of the seeking the Root or seeking the Identity finds vivid expression in the African-American Literature. It is the exact reflection of the process of African-American literary development.

1.1 Double-Consciousness and Blackness

Double Consciousness, the recurring and pervasive motif employed frequently by the African-American writers, was coined by the famous scholar W.E.B Du Bois. His great gift to the African-American Literary Tradition is the concept of the Duality of the African-American, which is expressed metaphorically in his related metaphors of “Double Consciousness” and the“Veil.” He said in his book the Soul of Black Folk,

“After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mnogolian, the negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world—a world which yield him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this Double –Consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, ----an American, a Negro; two thoughts, two un-reconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double-self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanized America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face.” (1989:

3)

The ancestors of the African-American were the slavers from the Africa. They were forced to strive for survival in the alien world. Under such circumstance, coupled with the double pressure from the white culture and their own tradition culture, they must face the problems of preserving the Negro blood and gaining the acquisition of Self-Identity (程&王 2001: 1

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3). The uniqueness of the survival determines to some extent their attitudes and the means of expression toward the world and the main stream. From these influential works, we can see that most of African-American novels are dealing with the discrepancy of their perception about the true world from the mainstream society, which is what we called “Blackness”.

Blackness, the unique characteristic of the African-American Literature, lies in the fact that we can hear two voices in the text—the text and the language “Double-Voiced”. The Blacks employ the metaphorical words to deconstruct the value set by the white (赵永健 200

4) .The Blackness in the novels closely relates with the unique history and the Identity of African-American. Blacks bear the Double-Consciousness in this alien world, dangling between their own culture and western culture. In order to voice their mind, they must create the African characteristic works to project their Blackness to the western culture. Thus, the African-American literary Tradition greatly influences the African-American writers in various aspects, all these we can find vivid description in the Ellison’s Invisible Man. The invisible man continuously strives for the Self-Identity in the white world, undergoing a lot of failure and gains the perception of the dilemma of the Negro in the world, thus he experiences from the innocence and mature.

1.2 Black Aesthetics—Signifying

Henry Louis Gates, the famous American scholar, said that the outstanding characteristic of Afro-American literature is the figurality. In his “Criticism in the Jungle” in Black Literature and Literature Theory, he elaborates and testifies this theory in lots of his works, such as the Signifying Monkey—a Theory of Afro-American Literature Criticism (王莉娅 19

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7). Thus, the theory becomes the most common and obvious characteristic of the Afro-American Literary Tradition. The Blacks couldn’t survival in this white-dominated society without figurality. They are the master of the figurality, for what they say is one thing, what they mean is another. It is the exact means they employ to strive for survival in the depression in the white culture. The metaphors are the characteristics of the African tradition.

Another African-American critic, Houston A. Baker in his Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American literature; a Vernacular Theory, explores the similar theory of the signifying or figurality. The African-American Literary Tradition is based on the social reality and is embodied by Blacks’ dialect, music (Blues, Jazz), ritual, and religious (刘捷 19

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7). The reason for this is that Afro-American novels are the synthesis products, influenced by the combination of society and culture. The novels are deeply rooted in the oral culture and the myth, which are the source of the Symbolism in the African-American Literature.

Thus, the Black writers employ the metaphor or symbols to present the reality of the common blacks, For example, in the Native Son of Richard Wright, the images of “White” pervaded in the novels. The games the protagonist and his friends played are called the “White”, the white hands of the Mary, and so on. The implications of the images are obvious— the depression and injustice from the White that pushed the protagonist to step on the journey to commit the crime. A series of images of the white and black are efficiently embodied in the Ellison’s Invisible Man, the trustee Norton’s white shoe with the black trim, the white building, the white drops, and so on. These images symbolize the submission and inequality of the blacks in the white world. In Beloved, Toni Morrison uses the symbols very often, for example the “Beloved” symbolizes the Blue, the anger, and also signifies the suffering of the blacks and the whole nation. In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, the title is pregnant with meaning— the color purple indicates dignity, love, human fellowship as well as suffering and pains. It represents God’s creation and common humanity. All these writers unexceptionally use the metaphorical expression to voice their own thoughts with the unique skills. It is also the way for Black writers to seek for action, for survival, for self- identity in the dominated white society.

1.3 Symbolism in African-American Literature

Based on the theory of signifying, the symbolism becomes one of the most important characteristics of Afro-American literature. Moreover, it is the effective way of expression to enable the Black writers to find their own ways to proclaim their thoughts.

With regard to Symbolism, Dr. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas Mclanghlin conclude, “Symbolism is the systematic use of symbols to represent or allude to something. In the most literal sense, all languages are symbolic, in a narrower sense, symbolism is the use of iconic figures with particular conventional meaning” (1990:

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5).

Symbolism, originated in France, is an important element in literature. It means the systematic use of symbols or pictorial conventions to express an allegorical meaning. Symbolism is a series of links between man’s apprehension of the world and the way he can convey his apprehension. Many writers’ works are often admired for their artful use of symbolism, for example, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and James Joyce’s Ulysses.

In African-American literature, writers frequently and effectively employ Symbolism to enforce the plot and to standout the characters or the conflicts between the ideal and reality. Langston Hughes, Richard White, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker are the masters of the Symbolism. They use the novel or romance as the conveyance of symbolism to explore the distance between the myth of European and the reality of African-American. The images pervade their works and become the effective vehicles to present the motifs, which help readers understand the true essence of the works better. Symbolism in the Invisible Man is the key for us to delve into the novel and dig out the true meaning the author wants to tell us. The symbols are present almost everywhere in the story from the beginning to the end, reflecting the protagonist’s emotion, promoting the development of the plot and foreshadowing the fate of the protagonist, which I will discuss in detail in the next part in my paper.

Symbolism in African-American literature is the inheritance and development of the literary tradition—the Theory of Signifying. Also, it continually plays a great role in today’s literature and sparkles intensely in the whole literature realm.