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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. 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Ann Arbor, MI 48106 The Musical Tradition As An Affirmation of Cultural Identity In African American Autobiography Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Alfonso W. Hawkins, Jr., B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1993 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Patrick B. Mullen Valerie Lee Advisor Steven Fink Department of English Copyright by Alfonso W. Hawkins, Jr. 1993 To My Family 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Patrick Mullen for his support, encouragement, and overall contribution to my dissertation. I thank Dr. Valerie Lee for sharing extremely valuable ideas and concepts regarding my research; and I thank Dr. Steven Fink for his support and contribution. I also wish to thank my friends and collègues for their encouragement and support. Ill VITA February 16, 1957 ........... Born — Montgomery, Alabama 1979 ......................... B. A., University of Alabama, at Birmingham 1983 ......................... M. A., Atlanta University Fields of Study Major Field: English Concentration: American literature and African American Autobiography IV TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ........................................ il ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................ ill VITA ............................................. iv INTRODUCTION .... ........................... 1 CHAPTER I: James Weldon Johnson Along This Wav Preserver of the Spiritual . 35 CHAPTER II: Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks on a Road The Jazz-Bebop Artist .......... 94 CHAPTER III: Langston Hughes The Big Sea The Blues Po e t .................... 158 CONCLUSION .22 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................... 254 INTRODUCTION African American autobiography in the twentieth century has a number of complex purposes, two of which stand out as central to understanding the literature: (1) to redefine self in terms of its place in the American experience, (2) to reconcile a dualism that emerges from this redefinition. The African American autobiography has its origins in the slave narrative and injustice of slavery. After emancipat ion, former slaves began the long and difficult task of affirming an identity of self which was suppressed during slavery to prevent rebellion. Nevertheless, the quest for freedom was paramount, and the slave sought freedom at every opportunity. Creative and cultural means of seeking freedom and identity resulted. "Canaan land," often referred to in Spirituals, equated the biblical promised land with freedom in the north. Slaves created Spirituals using biblical references as codes to signal escape. This would not alert the slave owner or overseer to the slaves' plan of escape. Therefore, creatively, as a means of forming a communal language, identity, and hope, the Spirituals served as 2 survival tools for the African American to psychologically and physically escape a world of degradation, pain, and suffering. In twentieth century African American autobiography, the quest for justice, freedom, and social equality is reinforced through an affirmation of communal identity. As a result, the musical tradition as a cultural point of reference for identity became evident in early African American autobiographical narrative strategies. Later I will show how James Weldon Johnson ( Along This Wav. 1933), Zora Neale Hurston (Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942), and Langston Hughes (The Big Sea. 1940) constructed personas of the black folk character whose life and vision echoed the black musical tradition. They embodied the romance of Spirituals, Blues, and Jazz and helped to sustain these folk traditions in their autobiographies. However, it is necessary to define these musical traditions as analytic frames for this study, as metaphors for the black experience, and as genres of music directly influencing African American autobiographical prose narrative. Spiritu als were praise songs for Heavenly deliverance from slavery and codes for physical escape. These songs echoed a creative and psychological freedom or relief from the toil of the soil and human bondage. James Cone in Spirituals And The Blues; An Interpretation notes that "The black experience in America is a history of servitude and 3 resistance, of survival in the land of death. It is the story of black life in chains and of what that meant for the souls and bodies of black people. This is the experience that created the spirituals" (20). The Spirituals were born out of the oppressive conditions of slavery. As Cone concludes "The Spiritual, then, is the spirit of the people struggling to be free; it is their religion, their source of strength in a time of trouble" (32). Spirituals tell the story of the black experience in America. Spirituals have historical and social significance when they give expression to the wails and woes of a displaced and oppressed people and culture. Moreover, Cone says "The spirituals are the story of black people's historical strivings for earthly freedom, rather than the other worldly projections of hopeless Africans who forgot about their homeland. The songs tell a historical story. ." (15). As a result. Black identity is closely defined through the music telling a truth born out of experience. Essentially, what is outwardly sacred is also secular. Earthly freedom was its didactic message. Nevertheless, the sacred element in Spirituals could not be dismissed: The song unites the believer to move close to the very source of black being, and to experience the black community's power to endure and the will to survive. The mountains may be high and the valleys low, but "my Lord spoke" and "out of his mouth came fire and smoke." All the believer has to do is to respond to the divine apocalyptic disclosure of God's revelation and cry, "Have mercy, please." This cry is not a cry of passivity, but a faithful, free response to the movement of the Black spirit. It is the black community accepting themselves as the peo ple of the Black Spirit and knowing through his presence that no chains can hold the Spirit of black humanity in bondage. (Cone 5) The sacred and secular merge in the Spiritual. Note that even in an apparent "passive phrase" there is resistance: "a faithful, free response to the movement of the Black spirit." The Blues, Jazz, and Gospel idioms were direct outgrowths of the Spiritual and Work Song traditions. The Blues echoed this escape through freedom of expression, telling of pain yet triumph. It affirms self in the midst of chaos and insurmountable odds. Both sacred and secular song styles projected a need for freedom of mind, spirit, and soul. The Blues is that expression which reflects the emotional state of someone who is deprived of empowerment. Born out of its sacred component, the Spiritual, the Blues reflects the past reconstruction period of continued struggle, hardships, and the need to affirm self in the face of adversity. Moreover, it also has a gender base. The Blues is a man affirming self against unrequited love. It is a woman telling the pain of forsaken love. As an analytic frame to Blues definition, James Weldon Johnson in The Second Book of Negro Spirituals notes that "The Blues, in their primitive form, are pure folk songs. They are the philosophical expression of the individual contemplating his situation in relation to the conditions surrounding him. In this respect they are the opposite of the Spirituals, which 5 are an expression of the groupw And, as follows naturally, the Spirituals are essentially group songs, while the Blues are essentially solos" (20). Nevertheless, the Blues soloist,, by enunciating the song, reflects the group, indirectly, by affirming a self that has problems similar to those of the group. James H. Cone states "In order to affirm being, a people must create forms for the expression of being and project it with images that reflect their perceptions of reality. They must take the structure of reality and subject it to the conditions of life — its pain, sorrow, and joy. That black people could sing the blues, describing their sorrows and joys, meant that they were able to affirm an authentic hope in the essential worth of black humanity" (141). As a cultural expression and a metaphor for the black experience, in later chapters I will present examples of Blues twelve bar structure, second line repeating the first line, and how directly the lyric reflects the life in autobiography.