Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The Themes and Ideas of African American Poetry
As we have been discussing in class, much of the African American poetry of the early 20th century shares common themes and ideas. These include double consciousness, identity struggles, "outsiders", and African heritage, to name a few. Although the situation of African Americans has changed drastically since this time, and their rights and equality have been fully realized, many would argue that these themes and others still exist in modern culture today. If poets like Hurston and Hughes were alive in modern times, do you believe that their poems would be similar to the ones that they actually wrote? Would they be different? How so?
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I think that their poems today would be similar to what they were then. However now they would not refer to slavery. I think that many people still feel connected to their heritage though it may not be the same as it was back then they may still have a connect to their past. Also if the poets were alive about 60 years ago they would be very similar because race was still a big issue in our country segregration was very prominent. I think that race can still be an issue today as well. A lot of stereotypes are made about all different races not just african americans. So i think that though american has changed a lot the poets could still finds things that would apply to their poems written bad then.
ReplyDeletei agree with lauren that hurston and hughes could write similar poems today as they did in the 20th century. instead of writing about slavery, which was a huge issue at the time, different, controversial themes of identity struggle and double consciousness would come forward. some of these themes today might be gay rights, religion, abortion and capitalism
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lauren as well, because I believe that stereotypes are still a big problem in today's world. It isn't necessarily still about race and slavery, but everyone in a society. No matter your religion, ethnicity or gender, people will still come up with their own ideas about you rather than actually getting to know you. These issues would help the poets ability to write similar poems that they did in the past. However, I think their poems today would be able to be applied to many different types of people instead of just African-Americans.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone that these poets would still have many things to write about today that have to do with the same themes of identity and double-consciousness. But I agree with Wallace that today these same themes would probably refer to other groups and issues and not necessarily just discrimination against African Americans. But we must also consider that although there are many prominent issues today, they are not on the same scale that African American discrimination was. I think that as a result, while Hurston and Hughes could write similar poetry, it might lack the passion and impact that there actual poems achieved when addressing such a huge issue.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that poets would have similar things to write about today. Although these modern day themes might not necessarily tie into race, they would still struggle to find their true identities, like Wallace and Katie said earlier. I also agree with Katie that the poetry today might not evoke the same emotions that African American struggle did for Hurston and Hughes at the time they wrote their poetry. People today still struggle to find themselves in society and some struggle to fit in. I think that any poet at any time could relate to the identity struggle that Hurston and Hughes went through, because that struggle will always be there.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everyone because throughout history problems that African Americans face have always appeared and have not gone away. The poems that Hurston and Hughes wrote then would not have the same meanings or points but they would be about the same general topics. African Americans then are similar in ways to African Americans now because they still face many hardships in many different ways and even though they have equal rights they still have many difficulties that they face.
ReplyDeleteI also think that there poetry would be similar to how it was back then. A lot has changed since the 20th century but, one thing that has not changed is discrimination. I believe that Hurston and Hughes concepts of being rejected, finding your way and speculating society can all be related to life today. I think they would write about gay community, Muslims, and even people with HIV.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the poems would be the same if they wrote them today because in my opinion, the race problems we have today are nothing compared to that time. At that time, black people were
ReplyDeleteNot considered equal to whites and the government separated them from whites. Today, blacks are considered equal to whites and they have the smae rights as whites. It's only some individual people who are racist who could cause problems today and not the whole white society. So because the problem is so much smaller today, i don't think they would write about it.