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Phillis Wheatley and the African American Literary Imagination

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Phillis Wheatley and the African American Literary Imagination "Strange Longings": Phillis Wheatley and the African American Literary Imagination The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:40046547 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA “Strange Longings”: Phillis Wheatley and the African American Literary Imagination A dissertation presented by Charita Elaine Gainey-O’Toole to The Department of African and African American Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of African American Studies Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2017 © 2017 Charita Elaine Gainey-O’Toole All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Charita Elaine Gainey-O’Toole “Strange Longings”: Phillis Wheatley and the African American Literary Imagination Abstract Throughout the African American literary tradition, writers have engaged Phillis Wheatley as a forebear, invoking her poetry and her biography for a number of purposes. Because the ways in which black writers treat race in their literature changes over time, these writers’ evocations of Wheatley respond accordingly. Wheatley falls in and out of favor over the course of African American literary history, but she remains a recurring figure in the nearly 250-year history of the tradition. Although portrayals of Wheatley evolve over time, various forms of longing inform all representations of the poet. Furthermore, these longings reflect the ways in which African Americans’ identity formation is ever changing and inextricably linked to the historical moment. ! """! Table of Contents Introduction: “Rescued by Our Imagination”: African American Writers Remember Phillis Wheatley…………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: “We Love to Rehearse It”: Phillis Wheatley as Indication and Inspiration in African American Periodicals, 1890-1906………………………………………………21 Chapter Two: “One Looks In Vain For Some Outburst”: Phillis Wheatley and the New Negro, 1919-1938………………………………………………………………………..54 Chapter Three: “Wasn’t It Good Sister?”: The Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival, 1973 ……………………………………………………………………………………………98 Chapter Four: “Tost O’er The Raging Main”: Phillis Wheatley’s Transatlantic Crossings in Late Twentieth-century African American Poetry…………………………………..141 Chapter Five: “212 Years Later, Did You Succeed?”: Thomas Jefferson and Phillis Wheatley Come Full Circle in Twenty-first-century African American Poetry……….170 Conclusion: “Follow Imagination Like a Lover…Into the Secret Rooms”: African American Writers Discover and Recover Phillis Wheatley……………………………194 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….201 ! "#! Acknowledgements There are many people to whom I am indebted for their contributions to this dissertation. I would like to thank my advisor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for his unwavering belief in my ability to finish this dissertation. Before I committed to attend Harvard and my heart was calling me home to UNC Chapel Hill, Professor Gates promised me that I had a new “uncle” at Harvard who would make Cambridge feel like home. He has kept that promise. This dissertation would have never been completed without the generous feedback of Robin Bernstein, another member of my committee. Professor Bernstein read and provided copious commentary on countless drafts of each part of the dissertation. Professor Bernstein was the last member to join my committee, and she did so enthusiastically. Her enthusiasm for my project never faded, and it helped me stay the course in moments when I was losing faith. My relationship with Elizabeth Alexander has been one of the highlights of my graduate school career. The opportunity to work with her was a long-time dream realized. Professor Alexander has taught me many things, but most importantly, she has taught me how to recover from setbacks and disappointments. She has inspired me to walk “into a light both brilliant and unseen.” Abby Wolf has been an unofficial committee member for the last year, and I would be remiss to not acknowledge her contributions to this dissertation. Last summer, she met with me almost weekly to help me write a dissertation of which I can be proud. I have to especially thank Abby for her relentless copy-editing. Her eyes catch everything that my eyes miss! ! #! In addition to my committee, I would like to thank the staff of the H.T. Sampson Library and the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University for their assistance during my research trip to Jackson in the summer of 2014. I would like to especially thank Ms. Darlita Ballard, the archivist at the library during my time there, and Ms. Angela Stewart, the archivist at the MWC, for helping me find everything that I was looking for and many things that I was not looking for but am so grateful that I found. The staff at the British Library in London, England was also very helpful during the final year of the dissertation. I would like to thank Lisa Baskin for introducing me to Carol Holder at the BL, who, in turn, introduced me to the Americas team at the library, which consists of Mercedes Aguirre and Elizabeth Cooper as well as the staff at the Eccles Centre for American Studies led by Philip Davies and Francisca Fuentes. I wrote most of this dissertation sitting in the Dobra Tearoom in Northampton, MA. I would like to thank the owners of Dobra, Alli and Joel Jukiro, for allowing me to use Dobra as a home base while I was writing. The ambiance, tea, wholesome meals, and especially the company nourished and inspired me. Thank you to all of the Devoteas and also to Joanna Jukiro for providing much needed work breaks. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family for their support. My long- time friends Jennifer Leach and Sharee Light have served as sounding boards and cheerleaders throughout this process, and I appreciate their support. I will be forever grateful to my mother for teaching me to read and write. The first book she taught me, I Can Do It Myself by Emily Perl Kingsley featuring Sesame Street’s Ernie and Bert, has been a rallying cry for self-reliance and determination that has served me well throughout my life. Without these traits, I never would have been able to finish this dissertation. I ! #"! appreciate my brother, Kenneth Gainey, my step-father, Kirk Sanders, my niece Kambreen Bell, and my nephews Khyshone Bell, and Kenzie Gainey-Warren for always being proud of me, and my godparents Angelene and Herb Martin for always treating me like blood. I am grateful to my mother-in-laws, Maryanne O’Toole and Ann Culver, for always encouraging me to be a “Succulent Wild Woman.” Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank my husband, Terrence O’Toole. He is the only person who has been here for every single day of this process. He has always told me that I could finish, but he also assured me that the world would not end if I decided that I did not want to. Knowing that I had his support either way gave me the courage to see this dissertation to the end. There are countless others whom I could thank for words of encouragement, favors, and other acts of kindness throughout this journey. Please know that your support is much appreciated and will not be soon forgotten. ! #""! Introduction: “ Rescued by Our Imagination”: African American Writers Remember Phillis Wheatley Mneme begin. Inspire, ye sacred nine, Your vent’rous Afric in her great design. Mneme, immortal pow’r, I trace thy spring: Assist my strains, while I thy glories sing: The acts of long departed years, by thee Recover’d in due order rang’d we see: Thy pow’r the long-forgotten calls from night, That sweetly plays before the fancy’s sight. -Phillis Wheatley “On Recollection” …I wonder if the tongues of that tribunal of good men quizzing her turned to dust in pure Latin and Greek. We are blessed if we can see her on the streets of Cambridge, in her heroic couplets, rescued by our imagination: -Yusef Komunyakaa “Lament and Praise Song” from “Séance” In her poem “On Recollection” Wheatley praises Mneme, the muse of memory, for her ability to recover “the acts of long departed years”; however, Wheatley could not have predicted that for centuries after the publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773, she would have generations of African American writers to thank for recovering her “long-forgotten calls from night” through their recollections of the poet in their own literature. Yusef Komunyakaa similarly evokes the power of recollection in his poem “Séance.” In a section of the poem subtitled “Lament and Praise Song,” Komunyakaa describes Wheatley as being “rescued by our imagination.” Komunyakaa’s line captures the ways in which Wheatley’s significance has been reiterated by dozens of African American writers through their treatment of her in their ! $! own works. The numerous representations and remembrances of Wheatley throughout the African American literary canon indicate Wheatley’s primacy to the African American literary tradition. Although it is unlikely that anyone foretold Wheatley’s far- reaching influence slightly more than two hundred forty years ago when she first published Poems, the book was pioneering, as it was the first book of poetry published by an African American writer. It was also the first book of any kind published by an African American woman. With the publication of her Poems, Wheatley gave birth to the notion that people of African descent were capable of producing poetry, a creative output requiring great intelligence and imagination. Given the significance of its publication, one might think that this book and its author would garner praise commensurate with a great literary achievement; however, despite her firm place at the beginnings of the African American literary tradition, appreciation of Wheatley’s work has been anything but stable.
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