African American Lit
The Oral Traditions of African American Literature is a subject frequently debated and dicussed by literary subjects. In order to properly understand the importance that Oral Tradition had on African Americans you try must understand why such tactics were used and were they can from. When Africans were taken from they country and forced to come to America as slaves they brought with them there culture, languages and customs. African Americans were forced to find other ways to express themselves and pass on there heritage and traditions. They expressed themselves through the use of story telling and songs. "This they would sing, as a chorus, to words which too many would seem unmeaning jargon, but which, nethereless, were full of meaning to themselves" (316, Douglass). This quote is an example of expressing there heritage through the use of songs. Go Down, Moses, Take My Hand Precious Lord & Steal Away Jesus are all other examples of Oral Tradition that African Americans have passed on from one generation to the next. These songs and folktales seen to weave into the narratives of slaves because these oral depictions were a part of there everyday life. Most narratives like "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," were
"We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves" (1271, Hughes), this sentence once again used imagery in the sense of sorrow. These two writers both seem to write about the difficulty for the African Americans to get over the huddle of racism. The only difference is that when Hurston writes about such things I don't believe he thinks as passionately as Hughes does about gaining the respect for African Americans. Hurston contradicted herself in an article in 1943 when she wrote "the Jim Crow system works," (999, Hurston), with this quote in mind I believe that her views may challenge the views of Hughes in that instead of trying to get over the mountain like Hughes said, she might feel more comfortable with having things stay he way they are now. These opinions are coincided with my own readings of each of there material. The reactions of Phillis Wheatly and some of the slave narrators to oral slave literature would most likely be negative. The Literature of Slavery and Freedom 1746-1865, included the following passage: "Typically the antebellum slave narrative carried a black message inside a white envelope." These thoughts of producing writings that were padded with material to make them more acceptable to white Americans at the time would be definitely be looked down upon by slave narrators. Dunbar's poem entitled We Wear the Mask describes the following: "We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries" (896, Dunbar), with this passage in mind I believe that both Washington & Du Bois had the same feeling in mind. I believe neither of them wanted there people to be misrepresenting themselves; they also didn't want them to portray themselves as being weak. Du Bous's actions like
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1188
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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