Literature of the Middle Ages. The Anglo-Saxon period Beowulf

23.Afro-American Literature. F. Douglas, R. Wright, Toni Morrison.


One of the most important themes in the twentieth-century American history is the struggle of black Americans for their human and social rights. In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln had ended the slavery of blacks. But their position in American society remained very bad, in the South especially. There was also a powerful organization called the Ku Klux Klan, which often used violence against blacks. Around the turn of the century, large numbers of blacks began moving from the South to the Cities of the North. In such cities as New York, their situation was somewhat better. In the North, young black artists and writers began their long struggle for social justice for their people. Richard Wright (1908-1960) was trying to bring «the heart that bleeds » out of hiding. He used powerful realistic techniques. The five short stories give a detailed description of the violence, which Southern white society uses against blacks. In his novel Native Son he uses naturalistic techniques to describe the social and psychological pressures on his black hero. Wright knows that the social situation of blacks causes them to become violent, too. Many critics compare Wright’s naturalism in this novel with that of Dreiser’s in American tragedy. Both works see human nature as basically good. It is society, rather than the individual, which is really bad. Toni Morrison. American author, who was awarded the Nobel prize for Literature in 1993. In her work she has explored the experience and roles of black women in a racist and male dominated society. In the centre of her complex narratives is the unique cultural inheritance of African-Americans. She was in born in Lorain, Ohio, where her parents had moved to escape the problems of the southern racism. Her family was migrants. She grew up in the black community of Lorain. In 1949 she entered Howard University in Washington, American’s most distinguished black college. There she changed her name from «Chloe» to «Toni», explaining once that people found «Chloe» too difficult to pronounce. While teaching at the University and caring for her two children, she wrote her first novel The Bluest eye (1970). With the publication of Song of Solomon (1977), she gained an international attention. Written from a male point of view, the story dealt with Milkman Dead’s efforts to recover his «ancient properties», a cache of gold. In 1988 she received the Pulitzer Prize for the novel Beloved (1987). Her last novel is Love (2003).