Distinctly American Performance in New Negro Renaissance Literature

Julie Anne Naviaux examines the importance and influence of performance in African American literature during the first half of the twentieth century.

Drawing from American studies, African American theater history, gender studies, and Black performance studies, this project shows how New Negro Renaissance literature demonstrates the significance of Black artistic performances during the Renaissance, and how these performances show the problematic nature of being both American and African American. The project includes the Harlem Renaissance and a broader approach to literary and cultural critique to include other sites of African American cultural performance in the United States and Europe. Authors studied include James Weldon Johnson, Jessie Fauset, Walter White, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ann Petry. The literature includes scenes with performances by Black artists, and their performances represent an embodiment of African American performance art. The texts critique the audiences’ reactions to the artistic product against the audience’s and performer’s racial identity. Such moments assist in understanding the developing assimilation and appropriation of African American art into American culture and the problems this creates. The project argues that these literary texts engage with their respective contemporaneous historical theater and create scenes with stage performance to show problems with binary racial lines and class distinctions.