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Between Art and Politics: Disunity of Black Drama during the Harlem Renaissance
Polák, Ondřej ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
v Abstract The goal of this work is to prove and map out a split within the newly formed African American drama during the period of the Harlem Renaissance. A split between politicized plays that were used as a tool to raise the spirit and awareness of African Americans, and the "folk plays" that put emphasis on artistic expression without overtly focusing on protest or political agenda. This duality, personified by W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, defined black drama in the period between 1916 and 1937, and the thesis explains it both from the thoretical standpoint as well as a practical one - meaning from the standpoint of its two philosophical leads as well within the plays themselves. First, the thesis shows the point of view of W.E.B. Du Bois, who stood behind the idea of "propagandistic" plays, and then the view of his opponent Alain Locke, who wanted to let go of outright political agenda and instead sought to legitimize the position of African Americans through artistic merit. Both of these lines of thought garnered following in playwrights, which in turn caused the duality. The thesis goes on to map each ideology separately, along with plays that lean towards it. More specifically it examines Rachel, For Unborn Children, Don't You Want To Be Free? from the Protest School and The Broken Banjo, Plumes...
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Between Art and Politics: Disunity of Black Drama during the Harlem Renaissance
Polák, Ondřej ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
v Abstract The goal of this work is to prove and map out a split within the newly formed African American drama during the period of the Harlem Renaissance. A split between politicized plays that were used as a tool to raise the spirit and awareness of African Americans, and the "folk plays" that put emphasis on artistic expression without overtly focusing on protest or political agenda. This duality, personified by W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, defined black drama in the period between 1916 and 1937, and the thesis explains it both from the thoretical standpoint as well as a practical one - meaning from the standpoint of its two philosophical leads as well within the plays themselves. First, the thesis shows the point of view of W.E.B. Du Bois, who stood behind the idea of "propagandistic" plays, and then the view of his opponent Alain Locke, who wanted to let go of outright political agenda and instead sought to legitimize the position of African Americans through artistic merit. Both of these lines of thought garnered following in playwrights, which in turn caused the duality. The thesis goes on to map each ideology separately, along with plays that lean towards it. More specifically it examines Rachel, For Unborn Children, Don't You Want To Be Free? from the Protest School and The Broken Banjo, Plumes...
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The Role of Harlem in the Development of African American Urban Culture: Cultural Capital versus Ghetto
Kárová, Julie ; Raková, Svatava (advisor) ; Calda, Miloš (referee)
Harlem is an emblematic neighborhood in New York City, historically perceived both as the center of African American culture and a black ghetto. This thesis explores the African American urban culture at its birth and analyzes it through the portrayals of Harlem in black literature, music, and visual art of the period. The era of the 1920s through the 1940s illustrates most distinctly the dual identity of Harlem as a cultural capital versus a ghetto as the 1920s marked a period of unprecedented cultural flowering embodied by the Harlem Renaissance, whereas the 1930s and 1940s were characterized by the Great Depression and its aftermath. During these years the living conditions in Harlem significantly deteriorated. The aim of this work is to critically analyze the period of African American cultural boom of the Harlem Renaissance years and discuss its relevance for the period in comparison to the artistic reactions to the experience of life in the ghetto. The proposed argument is that the way Harlem was depicted in African American culture and the artistic reflection of its duality characterized African American urban experience and culture in the period of 1920s through the 1940s, concentrating on the problem of urban reality in contrast with urban fantasy.
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