A Black Aesthetic in the Harlem Renaissance. The “Talented Tenth” Phase 1924 - 1926

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2018 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,3, University of Erfurt (Philosopische Fakultaet), course: Harlem Renaissance, language: English, abstract: This paper investigates a possible definition of a Black Aesthetic in the Harlem Renaissance with regard to literature in order to reevaluate the achievements of this literary flourishing. Close reading of two major influential works during the second phase of the "Talented Tenth" from 1924 to 1926 identify the crucial points of this Black Aesthetic. The analysis of two poems by African American writers such as Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes during this phase will show whether the theoretical ideas of the Harlem Renaissance forethinkers were actually incorparated into a daily artistic praxis. Sixty years after the abolition of slavery in the USA African Americans established a political and artistic community in Harlem that produced one of the most productive intellectual flourishing in African American history, the Harlem Renaissance. One of its goals was to create a sense of Black cultural identity through art.