Women and Identity Issues in Harlem Renaissance

Introduction

The Harlem Renaissance or the New Negro Movement began in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The movement started after the World War I, and lost momentum during the Great Depression, in 1935. The middle-class African American families of the South moved to the industrial cities after the Civil War, in search of jobs. Many settled down in the newly-built suburb of Harlem. These families were educated and socially conscious. During the 1910s, a new wave of racial equality took its foothold. The protests for civil rights by the African American leaders inspired artists from all walks of life. It was during this period that critics took a serious note of the literature and art of the African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance was not only confined to the American land, but spread its wings over Europe(Lewis 21-26).

Women Issues and Identity and Harlem Renaissance

A growing number of women writers from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds also emerged during this time. Drawing upon their varied experiences as Asians, Africans, and Native Americans, many of these female writers addressed issues of gender and ethnic identity from new and compelling perspectives. Together, such women provided insight into the lives of women in general and the often denigrated minority populations of which they were a part. In particular, African-American writers came to prominence as part of the literary and artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, which reached its peak during the 1920s and 1930s. This movement provided opportunities for many African-American women writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, and Jessie Redmon Fauset, to address issues of race and gender in their works. Such writers also gained appreciation for their declaration of cultural independence and their contribution to the development of an indigenous American language and literature. (Locke 67-79)

While women writers and artists participated in the thriving arts and literary movements during these years, many of them struggled deeply as creators. The world wars had a profound effect on the generation of writers that witnessed them, particularly women who bore the brunt of the social and cultural changes that resulted from these conflicts. Caught between their own aspirations as writers and artists, but confronted with a reality that provided little in terms of equal opportunity or rights, many female authors felt frustrated during these years. In addition, female literary achievement was largely downplayed in academic institutions due to the negative backlash against the suffragists and, more broadly, because of a patronizing and dismissive view of female intellectuals among male cultural elites. (Lowe 34-42)

Contemporary critic Elaine Showalter has drawn attention to the conflict, repression, and even decline suffered by many women writers during the early twentieth century. According to Showalter and other scholars, the years following the end of World War I were difficult for female novelists and poets in particular, who were regarded as writers of little substance. Yearning to write about serious issues facing their times but pushed to the periphery, poets such as Teasdale, ...