A comparison of the writings of Hoyt W. Fuller and Trey Ellis on the concept of “Black Aesthetics” provides the reader with expertise in the development that ultimately sought the cause of the upward mobility of the black race. Fullon’s article “Versus Aesthetic Black” was the first to establish what this concept was, this “Black Aesthetic” was in the 1960s, while Elias’ article, written nearly twenty years later, adds Fullon’s definition as his cited in Fullon’s article, these articles also provide a clear consideration of the ongoing and increasingly important nature of the desire for upward mobility of the black race in literature and the arts that are heralded by such movements.
In his essay “Black Aesthetic Verse” first published in Criticism in 1968, Fullo focuses on the ways white literary criticism upward mobility black race reveals the problematic nature of the contemporary critical system in which white critics evaluate the writing of black writers. According to Fullon, the fact that “violence against the black minority is in-built into the constitution of American society” and that “conscious and unconscious white racism is everywhere, infecting all vital areas of national life”, means both violent and racist tendencies. there are also criticisms of black literature visited by white critics (Fuller 199, 200). As Fuller points out, this racial bias appears in popular American literary criticism of black writing: the idea black literature. “a double standard” which judges less harshly than from white writings, when in truth the white letter is less punished and accepted more willingly, as Fullus writes;
Every year hundreds of modest volumes of prose and poetry published by white writers are little noticed and forgotten. At the same time, few works by black writers are understood and dissected and, if not considered “high” literature, there are still more examples of the lack of black writers who scale the rare heights of literature. (202)
The opinions are also present, as Fullo teaches, in the comments of candid literary critics, such as the poet Louis Simpson;
“I do not know” for the Negro that he can write well without us being aware that “the Negro” wrote. “On the contrary, if the Negro is the only subject, the writing is not important.” (200)
What is important here is not only the content of Simpson’s statement, but that, as Fullo asserts, “the white reader … will find it quite clear and acceptable”, because of the common understanding of “Negro life” as neutral. universal values” nor “universal explanations” (201). This ideology explicitly prevents black Americans from achieving upward racial mobility because the fact that the minority of Americans is the minority of the population in this country. serve
The solution to such problematic, white interpretations of black literature, according to “Black Aesthetic Verses”, is ultimately a path to Aesthetic-Aesthetic-Aesthetic more specifically, for black writers to preserve the writing, regardless of the consequences and structure. black literary critics within American literary culture, as these activities would shift the dominant perceptions and power of the white majority into the hands of members of the black minority. As Fullon writes, “The black writer … has wasted much time and talent … searching for an identity that can only violate his sense of self” (202). But black writers must imagine, “a journey towards a Black Aesthetic”, despite the fact that the Black Aesthetic Movement, as Fullo writes, “will be cursed to the contrary”, and its writers labeled “racists”. (199). Black writers consciously decide that “white racism no longer exerts its insidious power over their work” (200). As for criticizing the literary artifices of these “new” black writers that Fullon calls for, there is hope for the emergence of a “new black critic” who can “articulate and articulate a new aesthetic and finally ignite a long-term movement against the restrictive assumptions of white critics” (204). These new black critics, Fullon asserted, will have the duty to approach the works of black writers “with the knowledge that white readers—and white critics—cannot be expected to recognize and emphasize the subtleties and meanings of black style and art; ” thus giving blacks a greater opportunity for upward mobility (205).
Trey Ellis’ article “The New Black Aesthetic”, published in 1989 in the literary journal Callaloo, discusses the interests of both cloistered and self-established modern black writers and artists. the eighties and the first nineties with regard to the ongoing struggle for the upward mobility of the black race. Like Wilson Augustus is quoted as saying in Elie’s article, “What the dark ones were doing in the 60s will come to some. enjoyment .. .we have the framework and the intention to take it further” (238). The fact that these members of the new, still ongoing, efforts to achieve a mobile movement of the black race have so many advantages over their predecessors, yet are still held back in scope by certain ideological questions, highlights the growing importance and permanent nature of this desire. to the top
According to Elias, one of the interests, or tools, possessed by members of what he calls the “New Black Aesthetic” is the movement’s fact that many of them are children of civil rights workers and black nationalists (236). This means that they were destined to be “postliberated aesthetics” or, as Elias writes;
Even though they [the parents of the members of the movement] had not reached the land of promise completely freed from the slave mentality, they defended us from their footsteps. (236).
The fact that these members of the New Black Aesthetic movement were protected from the influence of this slavish mentality often produced by black Americans allowed these writers and artists to move beyond the rush and excessive racialism that was so characteristic of their earlier efforts. upward mobility of the black race. As Elias writes: “Hard and little changeable racism is constant among us, which I neither admire nor exasperate” (239-240). Arguably, this belief—that racism exists, is not an “excuse” for failure or lack of action—allows members of the New Black Aesthetic to focus their efforts elsewhere in pursuing their race upward. burdened by mobility rather than by the notion of phyletic descent (240). Another advantage of this new generation of black literary and artistic activists is their increasing numbers; as Elias writes, “However, as a movement we finally have the pressure of numbers on the side” (237). Where previous movements, such as the one discussed by Fullon in “Versus Black Aesthetic”, failed due to a sheer lack of numbers, this “New Black Aesthetic” has the possibility of succeeding “a large body of like-minded people” (234). In addition to the aforementioned advantages of Artists and Writers of the New Black Aesthetic, these people also benefit from the fact that “today popular culture< /a> is black almost across the board is directed” (237) as Baehrens points out;
Between Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby… Spike Lee and Robert Townsend, novelist August Wilson and poet Rita Dove (1987’s Pulitzer Prize Winners), novelist Toni Morrison (1988 Pulitzer Prize Winner), Wynton and Branford Marshall, The Prince, Exploding Raptors artists, the world is not only now used to the black arts, but it is also hungry for us. (237).
The fact that the artists and writers of the New Black Aesthetic are working at a time when black culture is the “dominant health of the culture of the month” gives these black people a great opportunity, as Elias asserts, for self-promotion and acceptance in literature and the arts not previously available to other proponents of black racial mobility. up (238)
According to Ellis, the members of the New Black Aesthetic Movement, although they have many advantages over their predecessors, the writers referred to by Hoyt W. Fuller in the aforementioned article, for example, still face obstacles in the search for upward mobility of the black race. . Elias specifically discusses two of these obstacles, the first of which is that, in the opinion of the author, “too many are blinded by fears of inferiority, they always demand the propagandism of positivism”, which often suppresses the creativity of black writers and artists. it is necessary that such an important and permanent movement be supported (238). The second obstacle to the movement supported by the New Black Aesthetic, which Ellis addresses in “The New Black Aesthetic”, is the idea that this movement is not necessarily open to all members of the black community. writes Baehrens;
This is going to be the real challenge of our little people group to make sure our movement is not a little elitist, avant-garde thing “, says Lisa Jones.
While Ellis does not condemn the New Black Aesthetic as elitist or “avant-garde,” it is clear from Lisa Jones’ comment above that other members of the movement are critical of this brand. The idea of fracturing the black community, of placing writers and artists above other black people, does not sit well with members like Jones, given that the success of the new movement relies at least in part on sheer numbers; the numbers are only reduced by tens of thousands in the black community.
The fact that two of the most famous, influential black writers, in almost two different periods separated by two decades, share the same desire of the black community for upward racial movement expressed by black writers and artists is a testimony to the ongoing and increasing importance of this desire. within black culture. Such a strong textual link between “The New Black Aesthetic”, which clearly indicates and informs “Towards a Black Aesthetic”, and this earlier article also speaks to the historical development of this movement and desire within the black community – the way in which the new proponents are increasingly pushed back by the earlier work in an effort to revive the movement until the desire is satisfied.
sources
Dent, tom. “Preface.” Callaloo 1 (1976): v–vi.
“dialectic, n.” WordNet. 2006. Princeton University. 05 Dec 2006
Ellis, Trey. “The New Black Aesthetic.” Callaloo 38 (1989): 233-243.
“ethos, n.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. 2006. Random House, Inc. 05 Dec 2006
Fuller, Hoyt W. Black aesthetic verse. Inside the Circle: An Anthology of African-American< /a> Literary Critics Harlem Renaissance to the Present.
Rowell, Charles II. Callaloo 1 (1976): 3-9.
