D. H. Lawrence and the Harlem Renaissance

‘You are white – yet a part of me’: D. H. Lawrence and the Harlem Renaissance A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2019 Laura E. Ryan School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 2 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................... 3 Declaration ................................................................................................................. 4 Copyright statement ................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 1: ‘[G]roping for a way out’: Claude McKay ................................................ 55 Chapter 2: Chaos in Short Fiction: Langston Hughes ............................................ 116 Chapter 3: The Broken Circle: Jean Toomer .......................................................... 171 Chapter 4: ‘Becoming [the superwoman] you are’: Zora Neale Hurston................. 223 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 267 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 271 Word Count: 79940 3 Abstract This thesis explores connections between D. H. Lawrence and four key writers of the Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston. It investigates both the responses of these writers to Lawrence’s work and the ways in which New Negro writers were frequently engaging in their work with the same themes, problems and ontological and philosophical questions as the English author. In demonstrating these unlikely instances both of influence and what I here call ‘confluence’ connecting these seemingly disparate artists and traditions, this study argues that these writers, though all historically figured as marginal (at best) to a now outmoded definition of modernism, emerge as central to new modernist thinking. By placing these authors in conversation, I position them as co-creators of modernism. The Harlem Renaissance is no longer considered to be the isolated, geographically-specific phenomenon that its name suggests. In dialogue with Lawrence, these writers emerge as modernist thinkers often reacting to the conditions of modernity in the same ways, experiencing the same things, even using the same forms and methods to convey their experiences. This project not only sheds new light on these particular writers; it pushes toward new ways of figuring literary connectedness across barriers of race and nation. As Paul Gilroy’s concept of the ‘black Atlantic’ rejected this conception of African, American, British and Caribbean cultural traditions as confined within national boundaries a quarter-century ago and more recent scholarship in transnational, global and even ‘planetary’ modernisms has further emphasized what Gilroy calls ‘the inescapable hybridity and intermixture of ideas’, this project further complicates and confounds the traditional ethnic and national divisions which persist in our understanding of modernism. 4 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 5 Copyright statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=24420), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/about/regulations/) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 6 Acknowledgements I am very grateful to the AHRC for funding this project and for providing financial assistance for archival work at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. I have been lucky to have two brilliant and supportive supervisors. Thanks to Douglas Field for his sage advice and encouragement, for always having something positive to say when I needed most hear it (and for sometimes holding supervisions in the pub). Howard Booth’s expert knowledge of Lawrence (and many other things) has been invaluable throughout this project; his thoughtful, incisive and thorough comments have pushed me to be both more ambitious and more precise. His guidance, especially in the final stages of this thesis, has been crucial. Thanks as well to Robert Spencer for not only reading my (sometimes exceedingly long) chapters with care, but for always offering incredibly helpful and insightful comments. Thanks must also go to my family, especially to my parents, Paul and Debra Ryan, for their love, help and encouragement in all I have ever done (and for never asking too many questions about it). Finally, the greatest thanks must go to Annemiek van Essen, whose faith and encouragement took this project from a vague idea to a reality and whose love, patience and tea-making skills have kept me sane, healthy and caffeinated over the past three years. 7 Introduction [I]n direction I am more than half American. I always write really towards America: my listener is there.1 Look at me trying to be midwife to the unborn homunculus!2 The bonds of literary tradition seem to be stronger than race.3 This thesis explores connections between D. H. Lawrence and four key writers associated with the Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston. It both analyses their responses to Lawrence’s work and more widely considers the ways in which these writers, though separated by factors of race and nation from the English author, engage with strikingly similar ontological and philosophical issues in their work. In demonstrating these unexpected instances both of influence and what I here call ‘confluence’, this study argues that these writers, though all marginal (at best) to a now outmoded definition of modernism, should be seen very differently in light of ‘new modernist’ approaches. Drawing upon world-systems theory, I look to demonstrate how the singular and simultaneous nature of modernity produced comparable reactions in artists experiencing modernity in 1 D. H. Lawrence, Letter to Amy Lowell, 9 October 1921, The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, Vol. 4, ed. by Warren Roberts, James T. Boulton and Elizabeth Mansfield (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) p. 97. 2 Lawrence, Foreword to Studies in Classic American Literature (Final Version), ed. by Ezra Greenspan, Lindeth Vasey and John Worthen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) p. 11. 3 Sterling A. Brown, Arthur P. Davis and Ulysses Lee (eds.), Introduction to The Negro Caravan (New York: The Dryden Press, 1941) p. 7. 8 unique and assorted circumstances. Reading these black and mixed-race writers alongside Lawrence, it is possible to trace continuities of thought that situate them all as co-creators of modernism. They emerge not merely as artists on the margins of the modernist project – as proponents of an ‘alternative’ strain of modernism or a ‘parallel project’ – rather, this thesis posits, they should be considered as participants in what Vincent Sherry terms ‘the modernism of radical critique, the modernism of a modernity against itself’.4 In the foreword to Studies in Classic American Literature (1923), Lawrence mischievously styles himself ‘midwife to the unborn homunculus’ of American literature. In a similar vein, Alain Locke, editor of The New Negro (1925), would later pronounce himself ‘philosophical mid-wife to a generation of younger Negro poets, writers, artists’ engaged in a movement later styled as the Harlem Renaissance.5 Lawrence and Locke, these two self-proclaimed cultural ‘midwives’, have rarely been connected. When Lawrence

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