Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance

From the close of the 19th century, when the first pre-Renaissance writers began to be published for the dominating white readers, to the Depression era that marked the demise of the movement, Cary D. Wintz analyzes the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance as the attempt of black writers to come to terms with the social issues of the 1920s-1930s through their writing.Being his approach both literary and social, he does not neglect the different positions of politics and philosophers, highlighting the non-unanimity of views on the goals the participants should aim at and the ensuing strains arising from within the movement.Wintz sublty depicts an intertwining net of relationships: black community and its literature, black artists and their target, black protégés and white patrons, black authors and white publishing houses, emphasising that it was this sheer interplay between the black intelligentsia and the white community that kept alive the vitality of the movement, despite the inevitable disagreements among the participants. Notwithstanding the fact that the Harlem Renaissance was led by a "loose coalition" of intellectuals, Wintz detects its "uniqueness" and bound in the "shared undertaking" of those same intellectuals who became aware of creating a "revolution in American literature".Wintz's particular ability is of investigating the Harlem Renaissance in all its nuances, including in his portrayal both the remote rise of the movement, with the analysis of the impact on the white-dominated scene of major black writers such as Chestnutt and Dunbar, the reasons of its fall and its effects on the following generations of writers, besides the accurate report of the hey-day of the movement.Special attention must be drawn on the sources consulted by the critic. As a matter of fact, most of the correspondence exchanged among the participants is scattered all over the United States, kept in several Libraries, Centers and Collections. Therefore, the consultations of such sources underline a work of precision and refinement and an attempt of restoring the live voices of the Renaissance makers.As a student and researcher on the topic of the Harlem Renaissance, I found this book exceptionally useful, detailed and clear. The author's style is straight-to-the-point and pragmatic. He wisely avoids any overlapping digression to the main subject matter and makes the reader understand his outlooks with clear images. I warmly recommend this text to any reader who feels like enriching his / her knowledge about this enlighting phase of American literature!