How African-American Characteristics Intersect and Influence Each Other & Society
“Characteristics of Negro Expression”, written in 1934 by Zora Neale Hurston, discusses many different forms of African American contributions to cultural art forms. Today, I will go through different literary works from around this time in the Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937), compare them to her observations, and see if they are compatible or not. However, as I go through this, if I believe that what Hurston states is different from a certain text, that does not mean that she is wrong in her observations–not every single piece of text will exactly match up with certain themes that can be seen in African American that have spanned for decades. Rather, I believe that this just goes to show how art can adapt and change over time and due to different circumstances, and that we should not hold all art forms to the exact same standards, as this can limit creativity and freedom of expression. In my last blog post, I discussed the vernacular tradition in African-American texts and heavily disc...
