Date of Award

6-1-2012

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

First Advisor

Maik Nwosu, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Clark Davis

Third Advisor

Eleanor McNees

Fourth Advisor

Frédérique Chevillot

Keywords

Harlem renaissance, Intersectionality, Nella Larsen, New negro, Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston

Abstract

Much of the Harlem Renaissance artistic movement was directly intertwined with the New Negro social movement of the time. Race leaders spoke to and influenced artistic trends, while artists often engaged with the New Negro race issues and social debates through their works. Wallace Thurman, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston used their own fictional works to explore the New Negro construct being promoted. In examining the constructed nature of this New Negro identity, these artists strove to destabilize the social "norms" upon which the identity was based. As they thematically and stylistically explored such social constructs through their fiction, Thurman, Larsen, and Hurston simultaneously gave voice to those perspectives unrepresented within such restrictive constructs. This project examines these authors' subversion of such social constructs through the frameworks of intersectionality and contextual dialogue.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Renee E. Chase

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

232 p.

Discipline

American literature, African American studies

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