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Indepth Study of Genius!!, August 31, 2005
This review is from: Langston Hughes: Critical Perspectives Past And Present (Amistad Literary Series) (Paperback)
LANGSTON HUGHES: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES PAST AND PRESENT by Henry
Louis Gates, Jr. and al, is part of the Amistad Literary Series on African Americans authors of noted literary fame and skill. As the title suggest, this particular installment discusses the some of the work of Langston Hughes.
The book is divided into to sections, excluding the introduction. The first section cover contemporary reviews giving during Hughes' lifetime. As the introduction notes, the reviews are "drawn from magazines, journals, and newspapers from the mainstream and African American press." Noted reviewers include the main rival of Hughes during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen, and one of the Renaissance's midwives, Jessie Fauset, both reviewing the WEARY BLUES. Cullen criticizes Hughes on being to much a Negro poet instead of just a poet in the Euro-centric sense and its attending influences. Cullen does offer Hughes praise here and there, but for the most part his taste contrasts sharply with Hughes resolutely Afro-centric/racial pride that would form the basis of a lifetime of the bulk of work composed by Hughes despite his being well read in the works of European authors in additon to those of African decent. Reviews of Hughes work to follow are by Sterling Brown, Richard Wright, J. Saunders Redding, Carl Van Vechten, and other lesser known figures lost to history. Sherwood Anderson reviews THE WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS where he feels Hughes may have
been a little to harsh in his depiction of white folks. Considering the all to often negative depiction of black folks in the various arts of the day, at lease Hughes put a more human
face on white folks, an act seldom accorded to black folks in literature by whites of that same time frame. James Baldwin provides the most caustic review of Hughes by way of Hughes SELECTED POEMS. The review hurt and angered Hughes to the point that Hughes never really liked Baldwin to much again. Later in Baldwin's life, he confessed his regret over his review and attested to Hughes' genius.
The second half of the book covers essays written by scholars on Hughes' varied pieces of work. The essays are comprehensive and well written to the point that a simple review cannot do them justice. Instead, one must simply take the time to read each one or each one of interest to him or her. There are ten essays in all of varying length. For me, three interesting ones were those by Arnold Rampersad, Steven Tracy, Raymond Smith, and
Maryemma Graham. Rampersad cites FINE CLOTHES TO THE JEW as representing Hughes at his very best and one never really equaled again by him. Steven Tracy covers the blues influence on the work of Hughes in-depth. Raymond Smith looks at aspects of the life of Hughes in relation to his work. Of note is the fact that Langston Hughes has more in common with blacks of the post integration period and its realities because of the "somewhat" integrated high school he attended as a teenager. Also, mention is made of Hughes steadfast racial pride, the solidarity despite the contrast in realities of blood history between the average African American to the pure blooded African, and Hughes opinion of whites in general, i.e. some being okay (covered in Rampersad's LIFE OF HUGHES Vol. 2.). Maryemma Graham argues that by focusing on the black working class in his literature, Hughes transcended racial subject matter specifically to become a social/proletarian artist in the universal sense. Moreover, Hughes did not adhere to strict socialist doctrine. Rather, he imbued and formed it around the realities of the African American experience to reach this universality. This significant and important characteristic is often ignored or forgotten when discussing the work of Langston Hughes, both poetry and stories, during the 1930s and 40s. As it otherwise existed, the predominantly white dominated left of his day was marred by a degree on general racism in the U.S. that largely ignored or failed to consider the black experience.
This book is quick to praise Arnold Rampersad's two definitive biographies of Langston Hughes. Arnold Rampersad's extremely exhaustive research is represented here in CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES making this and excellent companion to the biographies for anyone able and willing to take time to read this book along side Rampersad's biographies.
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