Harlem Renaissance

This study guide collection features the revolutionary writers of the Harlem Renaissance era, such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen, as well as contemporary titles that pay homage to this groundbreaking and distinctly American literary movement.

A Summer Tragedy

by Arna Bontemps

Publication year 1931

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Death, Masculinity, Aging

Tags Depression & Suicide, Great Depression, Harlem Renaissance, African American Literature, Poverty, Grief & Death

“A Summer Tragedy” is a short story written by poet and fiction author Arna Bontemps. It was originally published in 1933 in Opportunity and has since been included in multiple anthologies, including Bontemps’s 1973 short story collection The Old South: “A Summer Tragedy” and Other Stories of the Thirties. Bontemps is also known for the 1959 biography Frederick Douglass: Slave, Fighter, Freeman. Focusing on an elderly Black couple who have endured a difficult life of... Read A Summer Tragedy Summary

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

by Zora Neale Hurston

Publication year 2018

Genre Biography, Nonfiction

Themes Justice, Power & Greed, Family, Perseverance, Memory, Language, Race, Community

Tags Historical Fiction, Harlem Renaissance, US History, Race & Racism, African American Literature, Anthropology, Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Grief & Death, History: African , Social Justice, Trauma & Abuse, World History, Biography

Originally written in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” (2018) is the transcribed posthumous autobiography of the life of Oluale “Cudjo Lewis” Kossola (1841-1935), written by Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). Known for her involvement in the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston was a writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and filmmaker. In all her work, she held a special appreciation for Black life and Black culture of the US South. Her works... Read Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" Summary

Black No More

by George Schuyler

Publication year 1931

Genre Novel, Fiction

Tags Satirical Literature, Harlem Renaissance, Race & Racism, Science Fiction, American Literature, Humor, Classic Fiction

George S. Schuyler’s novel, Black No More: Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free, A.D. 1933-1940, is a satirical novel first published in 1931 by the Macaulay Company. The novel was reissued in 2015 by Martino Publishing, based in Mansfield Centre, Connecticut. Some contemporary scholars categorize this work retrospectively as one of the earliest pieces of literary Afrofuturism, a kind of science fiction unique to... Read Black No More Summary

Cane

by Jean Toomer

Publication year 1923

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Sexual Identity, Community

Tags Harlem Renaissance, American Literature, Modernism, Race & Racism, Trauma & Abuse, Science & Nature, Education, Education, World History, Classic Fiction

Cane, Jean Toomer’s most famous book, was first published in 1923. The original publication of the novel was a foundational moment in the Harlem Renaissance literary movement. Cane’s reissue (after being out of print for many years) in 1967 came out during the Second Renaissance of African American literature. This guide cites the 2019 Penguin Books edition. This guide also briefly mentions lynching and other racial violence as they appear in the novel.Other work by... Read Cane Summary

Drenched in Light

by Zora Neale Hurston

Publication year 1924

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Race, Coming of Age, Community

Tags Harlem Renaissance, African American Literature, Southern Literature, Classic Fiction

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Drenched in Light” is set in 1920s Florida and follows a single day of a young girl named Isis Watts, or Isie. The setting of a small town right outside of Orlando resembles Hurston’s own childhood in Eatonville. Published in 1924 by Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, “Drenched in Light” debuted early in Hurston’s career and includes some of her recurring themes dealing with race, gender, and identity. Hurston went on... Read Drenched in Light Summary

Dust Tracks on a Road

by Zora Neale Hurston

Publication year 1942

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Tags Harlem Renaissance, Race & Racism, World History, Classic Fiction, Biography

Dust Tracks on a Road is the memoir of Harlem-Renaissance-era writer Zora Neale Hurston. Originally published in 1943, the book won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Race Relations in the nonfiction category. This guide is based on the 1996 Harper Perennial edition of her original text. The book offers an account of Hurston’s life up until 1941 and her perspective on race relations, friendship, love, and religion.In Chapter 1, Hurston offers cultural and historical background... Read Dust Tracks on a Road Summary

Harlem

by Langston Hughes

Publication year 1951

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Future, Race, Justice, Equality, Nation

Tags Lyric Poem, Harlem Renaissance, African American Literature, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Race & Racism, US History, Urban Development

... Read Harlem Summary

Home To Harlem

by Claude McKay

Publication year 1928

Genre Novel, Fiction

Tags Harlem Renaissance, Race & Racism, US History, American Literature, Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction

Home to Harlem, Claude McKay’s 1927 novel set in the Harlem underworld, is the story of Jake Brown, an attractive African American who deserts the US military during World War I in France because he is forced to be a menial laborer rather than a soldier.Jakemakes his way home as a ship’s cook, embarking in London, where he spent the remainder of the war living with a white girlfriend. When he reaches Harlem, Jake encountershis... Read Home To Harlem Summary

How It Feels To Be Colored Me

by Zora Neale Hurston

Publication year 1928

Genre Essay / Speech, Nonfiction

Tags Harlem Renaissance, Creative Nonfiction, Education, Education, American Literature, Classic Fiction

This guide is based on the electronic version of Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” available at the University of Virginia’s Mules and Men website. The original essay was published in the May 1928 edition ofThe World Tomorrow. Hurston’s essay is her explanation of how she experiences being African-American.Hurston opens the essay with the comment that she is “a Negro” and unlike many African-Americans claims no Native American ancestry. Prior to... Read How It Feels To Be Colored Me Summary

If We Must Die

by Claude McKay

Publication year 1919

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Perseverance, Conflict, Equality, Power & Greed

Tags Grief & Death, Race & Racism, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, African American Literature, Harlem Renaissance, Education, Education, Classic Fiction

... Read If We Must Die Summary

I, Too

by Langston Hughes

Publication year 1926

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Equality, Race

Tags Lyric Poem, Race & Racism, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, African American Literature, Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement

... Read I, Too Summary

Me and the Mule

by Langston Hughes

Publication year 1959

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Race, Animals, Shame & Pride, Equality, Perseverance

Tags Lyric Poem, Harlem Renaissance, American Literature, African American Literature, Race & Racism, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Social Justice, US History

... Read Me and the Mule Summary