Paul Laurence Dunbar and Turn-into-the-20th-Century African

"[Paul Laurence] Dunbar's split between 'real' and 'mask' remained a potent paradigm for the New Negro era with its concern for representing 'authentically' the racial (or national) self without being imprisoned by the implicitly or explicitly racist expectati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:African American review 2007-01, p.377-386
Main Author: Smethurst, James
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African American poets
Dunbar, Paul Laurence (1872-1906)
Literature, Themes, motives
Poetry, Themes, motives
Segregation
Segregation, Law and legislation
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Summary:"[Paul Laurence] Dunbar's split between 'real' and 'mask' remained a potent paradigm for the New Negro era with its concern for representing 'authentically' the racial (or national) self without being imprisoned by the implicitly or explicitly racist expectations of white readers, actual or potential, or of variously accommodationist black readers...Dunbar's dialect poetry, then, in a strangely negative way helped later African American poets imagine a distinctly and more 'authentic' 'Negro' literature aimed at a black audience." (African American Review) This essay on Dunbar, "the first Negro to attain and to maintain a distinguished place among American poets," explores the role of "African American dualism" in his poetry. His status as part of the "first generation to grow up after Emancipation" and its impact on his writing is considered.
ISSN:1062-4783
1945-6182