Jean Toomer and the Harlem Renaissance [Paperback]

Genevieve Fabre (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

"Jean Toomer and the Harlem Renaissance offers insightful and controversial new interpretations of Toomer's elusive masterpiece in the context of both the Harlem Renaissance and Anglo-American modernism." -Cheryl Wall, author of Women of the Harlem Renaissance Jean Toomer's novel Cane has been hailed as the harbinger of the Harlem Renaissance and as a model for modernist writing, yet it eludes categorization and its author remains an enigmatic and controversial figure in American literature. The present collection of essays by European and American scholars gives a fresh perspective by using sources made available only in recent years, highlighting Toomer's bold experimentations, as well as his often ambiguous responses to the questions of his time. Some of the essays achieve this through close readings of the text, leading to new and challenging interpretations of Toomer's transcendence of genres and styles. Others show how the publication of Cane and his later writings placed Toomer at the heart of contemporary ideological and artistic debates: race and identity, the negro writer and the white literary world, primitivism and modernism. Geneviève Fabre is a professor at the University Denis Diderot in Paris, where she is director of the Center of African American Research. She has published widely on African American and Hispanic literature, including her book Drumbeats, Masks, and Metaphors. Michel Feith is associate professor at the University of Nantes, France, and has published on Asian, Hispanic and African American literatures.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Jean Toomer's novel Cane has been hailed as the harbinger of the Harlem Renaissance and as a model for modernist writing, yet it eludes categorization and its author remains an enigmatic and controversial figure in American literature. The present collection of essays by European and American scholars gives a fresh perspective by using sources made available only in recent years, highlighting Toomer's bold experimentations, as well as his often ambiguous responses to the questions of his time.

Some of the essays achieve this through close readings of the text, leading to new and challenging interpretations of Toomer's transcendence of genres and styles. Others show how the publication of Cane and his later writings placed Toomer at the heart of contemporary ideological and artistic debates: race and identity, the negro writer and the white literary world, primitivism and modernism

About the Author

Geneviève Fabre is a professor at the University Denis Diderot in Paris, where she is director of the Center of African American Research. She has published widely on African American and Hispanic literature, including her book Drumbeats, Masks, and Metaphors. Michel Feith is associate professor at the University of Nantes, France, and has published on Asian, Hispanic, and African American literatures.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813528461
• ISBN-13: 978-0813528465
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #953,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gives Great Insite into Cane and Toomer and Their Respective Place in the Harlem Renaissance, January 11, 2007

By 

Jacob Skinner "J. Skinner" (Fresno, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jean Toomer and the Harlem Renaissance (Paperback)

I'd recomend this book to anyone interested in digging deeper into the mistery that is Cane and Jean Toomer. Their is some litterary analysis but mostly the book disects Cane's role in the H.R. and the spiritual, racial, and philosophical motives Toomer may have intended by his novel and some that he may not have. By reading the essays in this book one can begin to understand the person Jean Toomer was and why Cane was over-looked in its time and is today an important work of the Harlem Renaissance.