Symbolic Space, Communal Rituals, and The Surreality of The Urban Ghetto: Harlem in Black Literature From The 1920s to The 1960s Author(s): Günter H. Lenz Source: Callaloo, No. 35 (Spring, 1988), pp. 309-345 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2930966 . Accessed: 04/04/2013 12:10 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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SYMBOLIC SPACE, COMMUNAL RITUALS, AND THE SURREALITY OF THE URBAN GHETTO: HARLEM IN BLACK LITERATURE FROM THE 1920s TO THE 1960s H. Lenz ByGuinter

Since theHarlemRenaissanceofthe 1920s,blackliterature ofthecityhas been indebated and often mistaken standards. Have blackwritersmoreor tensely judged by less failedtoreflect theurbanexperienceofthecommonblackpeople and sadlylagged behind social scientistsor politicalactivistsin theirefforts to understandthe social and culturalchangesbroughtabout by blackAmericans'large-scaleexposureto an urbanizedand industrializedmodernworld since the GreatMigrationof the 1910s and theformation and laterdeterioration oftheurbanghettoes?Have theybetrayed thebrutalrealityand indulgedin exoticworldsof theimagination?Or has blackliteraturehelped in a unique way to communicate,dramatize,and orchestrate thecollectivequest forculturaland communalidentityof the black minority of the cities? Whichliterary strategiesdid blackwritersdevelopin orderto createimages,sounds, and which"patterns visions ofa new blackurbancultureand community; rhythms, of words achievingform"did theyworkout forexpressing"a naked worldwhose realitywas hithertounimaginable"?How did these literarystrategiesor "patterns" of Harlemfromthe "Negro capitalof the changein responseto the transformation world"ofthe 1920sto theghetto"on theedge ofhell" ofthe 1950sand 1960s?And, moregenerally,how can we as criticsadequatelygrasp the complex,oftencontraof "society,""community," and "culture,"and "literature," dictoryinterrelationship de- or reconstruct itin our interpretation ofliterary texts?

Liminoidphenomenaand genresand thedramatizationof communitas I thinkthattheworkofanthropologist VictorTurner,especiallyhisbooks TheRitual Process(1969), Dramas,Fields,and Metaphors (1974), and the collectionof his recent From to Theatre Ritual can (1982), essays help us in pursuingthisquestionof the exand dramatization cultural and of communalidentityin themediumoflitploration erature.l For Turner,social and culturalchange is not the replacementof an old systemof values and attitudesby a new system,bothof whichcan be describedas staticand consistentsystemsof"social structures," and whichwe thencan relateto each other in terms of "survivals," "adaptations," "hidden continuities,"or "fundamental breaks."Turnerdoes notsee societyas an "abstractsystem,""whetherofsocialstruc309

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turalrelationsorofsymbolsand meanings,"butas "performance," as a "process"that and always combines "social structure"and "communitas"(or "anti-structure") strivesforan ideal "societas"it can neverrealize(RitualProcessvii; Dramas274, 238; "Process,Systemand Symbol"78). In termsoftimethesocialprocesscan be understood in analogyto thethreephases ofa "ritede passage" (van Gennep). Duringthe middlephase, the"liminalphase,"and atthe"liminalplace,"thelaws ofthedominant social structure are suspended and theexperienceofcommunitasbecomespossible, untiltheparticipants ofthe"rite"returnto a new phase ofsocial structure. Whereas in pre-literate societiesthethirdphase of the ritualprocessusuallyis anothersocial intoa secret stage,suchas inthesocializationprocessofadolescentsorintheinitiation in the a literate societies a liminal can be result of crisisthat serious society, phase the of as a revolt the social struccommunitas produces experience against dominating ture.Particularly in timesofradicalstructural a form of communitas manifests change inTurner'swords)thattranscendstheold order itself("crisisdisclosingcommunitas," and projectsan alternativefuture,but cannot,and mustnottryto, directlyanticipate and defineit in termsofa new social structure or as the realizationof theideal "societas"(Dramas232,248,250). Whatis possibleduringtheliminalphase, at a liminal place, is the subversionof the governingnotionof reality,a projectionofalternative (notso muchdirectly"opposite")"modelsforliving,"thespontaneousexperienceof communitasin "social dramas,fields,and metaphors,"in symbolicaction,in kinds ofopen,non-teleological rituals.Thatis, theliminalphase mustnotbe understoodas or "welt"anomie,"or simplyas the transitory stagebetweentwo social structures, different statusby enactingthepoweroftheimaginabilder,"buthas a qualitatively tionand ofpotentiality ("no-placeand no-time"),"fromutopiasto programs,which arecapableofinfluencing socialand politicalroles thebehaviorofthoseinmainstream or in authoritative control or (whether dependent, rebellingagainstit)in thedirection ofradicalchange" (Dramas250f.,258f.;"Liminalto Liminoid"65). and urbanizedworld,in modernliteratesocieties,which Now, in theindustrialized are characterizedby the separationof the spheresofworkand leisure,communitas manifests itselfina less directway.In thecontextoftheircomplex,dynamic"symbolic and mustmainlybe used in a metaphoricalway. Comsystems genres,""liminality" munitasmanifestsitselfin a "deconstruction" and "dismemberment" ofritualand a in "estheticmedia": "reconstruction" The dismemberment ofritualhas, however,provedtheopportunityoftheaterin thehighcultureand carnivalat thefolklevel. A multiplicity ofdesacralizedperformative genreshas assumed, thetaskofpluralculturalreflexivity. The sparagmos prismatically, ofmajorliturgical (dismemberment) systems,or,in some cases, theirrelegationto the peripheryof the social process,has resultedin thegenesisand elaborationof estheticmedia, each of whichtakesas itspointof departurea componentsubgenreof traditional ritual.... Ifritualmightbe comparedto a mirrorof ofperformative arts mankind,itsconversionintoa multiplicity each reflecting thereflections of givesus a hallofmagicmirrors, theothers,and eachrepresenting nota simpleinversionofmundane reality,butitssystematic and distortion, the magnification ensemble composinga reflexivemetacommentary on society 310

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CALLALOO and historyas theyconcernthe naturaland constructedneeds ofhumankindundergivenconditionsoftimeand place. (Ritual Process73) In industrializedsociety,"leisureprovidesthe opportunity fora multiplicity of optional,liminoid[i.e., "liminal-like"] genres[and media]" such as theater,literature, and reconstrucart,music,film,popularculture,sports,games. Thisdeconstruction withvariablerepertoires," tion,this"experimentation happens duringleisuretime when thereignof "work"is suspended, oftenin a problematical way, and in sociocultural"liminoidsettingsand spaces" thatallow theexplorationand theenactment of the potentialof communitas,such as "universities, institutions, colleges"as well as "bars,pubs, some cafes,social clubs" or the theater("Liminalto Liminoid"61f., 64f.,83, 86; "Process,Systemand Symbol"68, 72-74,77). In summary,Turnercharacterizesliminoid to liminal)processesand phenomenain thefol(in contradistinction lowingway: they -"flourish in societieswith'organicsolidarity,'bonded reciprocally by 'contractual' relations,and generatedby and followingtheindustrialrevolution," -"may be collective(and when theyare so are oftendirectlyderivedfromliminal individualproducts,thoughthey antecedents),but are morecharacteristically oftenhave collectiveor 'mass' effects," - "developapartfromthecentraleconomicand politicalprocesses,alongthemarofcentraland servicinginstitutions gins,in theinterstices -they areplural,fragin character," mentary,and experimental -"tend to be moreidiosyncratic or quirky,to be generatedby specificnamed individualsand in particulargroups--'schools,'circles,and coteries," -"are oftenpartsof social critiquesor even revolutionary manifestoes-books, and immorplays,paintings,films,etc., exposingtheinjustices,inefficiencies, and organizations" alitiesof the mainstreameconomicand politicalstructures ("Liminalto Liminoid"84-86). Literature is a liminoid and "normal genrethatsuspends thelaws ofsocialstructure discourse"and transforms social actionsintodramaticperformances. Butit also can createin itsownmedium a worldoftheimaginationcomposedofsymbolicspaces and communalrituals(and theirdismemberment) thatexpressand dramatizean alternativeorutopiancommunitasthat,however,mustnotbe read as imitationof,reflectionof,or programfor,everydaysocialreality."The vain taskoftryingto findout in whatprecisewaycertainsymbolsfoundintheritual,poetry,oriconography ofa given can be 'reflect' or its social or structure abandoned" (Dramas society 'express' political liminalthinkers," as "mostarticulated voicesofvalue" as "exceptionally 270).Writers, socioculturalexperience"(Dramas develop "new ways ofdescribingand interpreting and the imaginativeworldit createsare 15, 17, 28). But at the same time,literature also alwayspartand productofa society,sinceitspresentas wellas itshistoryprovide literature withthe materialforitsvisionsand projectionsof an alternativereality.It is throughthisdialectic,throughexploring"theinterface between... socialand aestheticdrama,"throughthetensionbetweenthe"subversion"of"prevailingsocialand culturalmoresand politicalorders"and the"generation"ofalternative "models,"that worksof literature and theirreceptioncan contributeto the searchforculturaland 311

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CALLALOO communalidentityand help people to exploreand findout what the "reality"they facein theireverydaylifeactuallymeans or could mean (fromRitual90; "Liminalto Liminoid"72). The "liminoidphenomenon,"theurbanliterature ofblackAmericansfromtheHarlem Renaissanceto the 1960sthatdramatizesthespecificexperience(s)oftheghetto and culturein Harlem,offersan illuminating case in point.Itwas created community in a timeofsocialchangesand culturalcrisesin theU.S., bya groupofpeople, socially as well as spatiallymarginalizedin society,a groupof people whose ruraloral folk cultureand community was in the processof being destroyedand displacedby, or transformed urbaninstitutionalized literateculture;a groupof into,a predominantly at was to the and transforthat, first, people interpretative onlybeginning explore mativepower of fictionand the formsand voices of a literature of its own. A closer look at blackHarlemliterature can also help us betterto understandthegenesisand of in liminoid changes phenomena Americanurbanindustrializedsocietyand culture, and the tentativeworkingout and testingof literary in the expressionand strategies communication ofan urbanghettoexperience.Thisapproachtakesup thechallenge ofTurner'sprogrammatic statementsand explorestheirlimits: In theirproductions[of prophetsand artists]we may catch glimpses of that unused evolutionarypotentialin mankind whichhas notyetbeen externalized and fixedin structure. Communitasbreaksin throughtheinterstices in liminalofstructure, in marginality; and frombeneath ity;at the edges of structure, in inferiority .... Liminality, and strucstructure, marginality, turalinferiority areconditionsin whicharefrequently generated myths,symbols,rituals,philosophicalsystems,and worksof art.These culturalformsprovidemenwitha set oftemplatesor modelswhichare,at one level,periodicalreclassifications ofrealityand man's relationshipto society,nature,and culture.But sincetheyincitementoaction theyaremorethanclassifications, as wellas tothought.Each oftheseproductionshas a multivocal character, havingmanymeanings,and eachis capableofmoving people at manypsychobiologicallevels simultaneously.(Ritual Process128f.) The followingessay focuseson some oftheseliterary "templatesor models"in black Harlemliterature and triesto interpret their"multivocalcharacter"and thevarious thedramatization ofcommunitas,createdout ofa situationof"liminality, marforms and structural from the the Great to 1960s. ginality, produced inferiority," Migration

HARLEM RENAISSANCE The UrbanExperience:AlternativeWorldsof theImagination Ifwe remembertheexperienceofculturalconflict and social changethattheblack in the from the South faced Northern City,the conflictbetweentheirtramigrants

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ditionalfolkcultureand the urban industrializedmodernworld of New York,the formation oftheghetto,Harlemas a "laboratory ofa greatrace-welding"(Locke),the of theirold formsofcommunity and comsubversion,revision,and transformation munalrituals,itdoes notcomeas a surprisethattheearlyworksoftheHarlemRenaissance do notoffera "realistic"pictureofeverydaylifein Harlem.2The suspensionof the traditionalnormsof communication and behaviorin a totallydifferent environmentoftenentaileda cultureshock,butalso opened up tothemigrants fromtheSouth a new perspectiveon thevalidityand potentialuse of theirfolkcultureand set free enormousenergiesforunderstanding, and influencing a "reality"that appropriating, at first could neither describe nor the writers Instead, they comprehend. approachthe urbanexperienceand thecontradictory, of Harlem lifebyway ever-changing "reality" of contrastand distance,in the images,sounds, and rhythmsof alternativeworlds and of visionsof theircollectivepast. Theirworksare versionsof a dreamof communitasthatseem to conflict withthedemandsand laws ofeverydayurbanlifeand at firstsightlook and sound "exotic." Three "alternativeworlds" characterizethe black urbanliteratureof the 1920sin Harlem.

Jamaica:"memorieswarm/Of thegreatcitygracefullike a birch" To the WestIndian immigrantClaude McKay who lived in Harlemfrom1912to 1917,from1919to 1922,and afterthe returnfromhis European exilein 1934to his Severalofhis death,lifein New Yorkwas alwaysan experiencefullofcontradictions. sonnets voice to his and his criticism of America,butalso early powerfully give anger his fascination with"thisculturedhell" ("America,"HarlemShadows6). In his poems he describeslifein theUnitedStates,in New YorkCity,byopposingittothe"pastoral world"ofhis home islandJamaica,forexamplein "SubwayWind" or "WhenDawn Comes to the City."McKay evokes "the sickand heavyair,"the "deafeningroarof captivewinds"ofthe"graysubwaytrains,"the"pale-cheekedchildren,"the"crowd" in the "packed cars,"the monotony,coldness,lonelinessof the largecity,and contraststhemsharplyto the"Islandsofloftypalmtreesbloomingwhite/Thatlend their perfumeto thetropicsea /Wherefieldslie idle in thedew drenchednight,/And the Tradesflowabove themfreshand free.""A wave oflongingthroughmybodyswept, /And, hungryforthe old, familiarways, /I turnedaside and bowed myhead and wept" (HarlemShadows8, 54, 60-62). In otherpoems,McKaygoes beyondthisopposition,thenostalgiclament,and uses theimages,sounds,and scenes ofthealternative worldofJamaicain his imagination in orderto betterunderstandthecomplexity and othernessofhis culturalexperience in New York.In "Dawn in New York,"forexample,thepoet knowsthathe is partof New York("myspiritto itsspiritthrills"),and he acknowledgestheambivalentlove and fascination he feelstowardthecity("And I go darkly-rebelto mywork"(Harlem Shadows43).

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The poeticaldialecticofclosenessand distance,ofidentification and estrangement in a is further and dramatized written a few after his departure years poem explored fromHarlem:"Song ofNew York"(1926). The poem beginswiththeexperienceofexile,ofdistancefromNew York("Oh we have fledthe world's mostsplendidtown . .."), but the poet has not forgotten the which in he describes and celebrates of nature: city images Butwe can notforgetwho have once seen The sparklingeyes ofNew Yorkfromthebay, Her naked body standingsheerand clean, Pure gracelikebirchesin theopeningday. The immediatesensualimpressionsin Europe,therelicsand documentsofmedieval culture,of European history,always evoke in his imaginationcontrasting images, sounds, and landmarksofNew York,especiallyofHarlem("the raucoussound /Of an old 'elevated'overhead,/Be hurrying to thestationHarlem-bound"),ofa brutal, reality: demanding,but fascinating And oftenI was wildlymoved to test Myselfagainstthecity'sgleaminglines, To feeltheiredges touchmybare brownbreast! Itwas in thefamouscapitalsofEurope,in Paris,Berlin,and London, thathe realized how muchNew YorkCityhad captivatedhis imagination("a demon holdingin his handa whip"),eventhoughthis"demon"drovehim"throughthecoldstraight streets to work/Witha song frozendead upon mylip." ForMcKay,it is thistension,this ambivalenceof "loves and hopes and stringing fears,"whichis the drivingforcefor themillionsofinhabitants ofNew Yorkand whichhas forgedthecityintotheunique "firstcapitalofmoderntoil."The finalstanzatakesup thebeginningofthepoem and reconfirms thepowerofthepoeticimagination: Abroadwe shallbe moved by memorieswarm Of thegreatcitygracefullikea birch And findmoremystery in herperfectform Than in thespiritofan ancientchurch. Deep in our thoughtsherburninglineswillflow, Our veinspulsatingwiththepoignantache Thatmen have always feltwho strangelygo Like gipsiesthroughtheworldforbeauty'ssake. Seen, orimagined,froma distanceand recreatedinthememoryofthepoet,themetropolitancityofNew Yorkthatoftenhad been experiencedas cold,abstract,dominated by moderntechnology,takes on poetic formin images of nature,"gracefullike a birch,"mysteriousin a formmore perfectthan anythinghe could findamong the monumentsofEuropeanreligionand history.Of course,thepoem does notclaimto of presenta "realistic"pictureofNew York,noris itsimplythenostalgicglorification a timepast. It dramatizesinsteadhow the experienceof the city,of New York,has 314

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in becomea livingpartofthepoet's naturalbeing,how he feelsits"strange"presence itsgreatestintensity when itis absentin "reality." In thefinalwordsofthepoem,"go... throughtheworldforbeauty'ssake,"McKay indicatesthe poetic statusof "Song of New York,"the poeticappropriationof the thatforestalls strategy (experienceofthe)cityinimagesofitsapparentopposite,a poetic all criticism of "romanticizing" "reality"by acknowledgingit,by revealingthatthe in which the demandsofthe"adequacy" ofimagesand notions creates a world poem In elaboratinghis poeticworld,McKay,obto outsideempiricalrealityare suspended. of of the tradition makes use Englishromanticpoetry,but also revivesthe viously, his and of own childhood youthin Jamaica.And itwas notthelargecity experience in generalthatofferedanother,transfigured visionand experienceofthenaturaland creativerhythm ofhis "pastoral"past,butHarlem,theblackcitywithinthecity,as he writesevocativelyin a reviewofhis own novelHometoHarlem(1928): All was unique and novel [inHarlem],yetnothingwas strange. Itwas as ifmyboyhood'sseminudebackwoodslife,orthejungle ifyou will, was all dressed up and paradingitselfgailyin the biggestcityin the world. Here were our simple palm-booth tunes delightfully syncopated,our picnicjigs jazzed, the lazy animalmovementof the tropicsquickenedto the beat of New York'sdouble-marching time,thesame variegatedpigmentand mattyhairrefinedby beauty-shopbleachesand Kink-no-morevernacular, processes,the same ripevoices utteringa different thesame deep-movingAfricanrhythm. necessaryat the timeto Nicelyequipped, havingeverything up togettingdeep enjoythelifeofHarlem,I gave myselfentirely whichstillremainsone ofthemostpleasdown intoitsrhythm, urablesensationsin myblood. ("Significant Books") If thissounds prettyidyllicand "romantic,"we should not thinkthatMcKay only thelargecityin his poetryofexile.In a poem writtenthesame yearas "Song glorified ofNew York"whichwas publishedin twoversions,one called "Desolate," theother "The Desolate City,"he dramatizesthecontradictions, thetensions oftheurbanexperiPoems52-54). The despairand thelonelinessof ence,of"disruptivechange" (Selected the poet findtheirobjectivecorrelativein images and scenes of a "pestilentialcity" fullof"agonies,""fever,""sickness,""decay,""stupor,"ofsterility and "death,""cirin a / motion." is With "My spirit pestilentialcity, cling changeless miserytriumphant /gluttedwithbaffledhopes and humanpity."In former timesithad been everywhere, when everything was alive,music,childrenplayed,birdssang,a timethat different, seems to be "gone, gone foreverthefamiliarforms/To whichthecityonce so dearly clung ... ." Therestillis some hope, however,thatthepoet and the citycan regain theircreativepowerthatwas "lostaway likelovelysongsunsung,"and thepoet tentativelyenvisionsa "beyond"he is unable to describe:"Yetlifestilllingers,questioninglystrange...." In fact,McKaymoreorless stoppedwritingpoems after1926in hisEuropeanexile, butwhen he returnedto New Yorkand Harlemin 1934he seemedto "find(his) voice to singagain," as he put itin his poem "Note ofHarlem"(1934).The poem is a celebrationof the "richness"of Harlemand thepower ofart.In thehappy "confusion" ofhisreturntoHarlem,"on thisfamiliar ground,"in view of"thisHarlemstreet,"the 315

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"familiarforms"-whichwere "forevergone" in "Desolate"/"TheDesolate City"and theimagesofa cityfulloflifereturnin theirpoeticdialectic,and thepoet's "head in dizzyjoy goes roundand round." Richis theflavorofthisHarlemstreet The dusk overthedark-warmscene is tender The murmuring offruit-ripe throatsis sweet And gladlyto thetumultI surrender. Afteryearsof endless wanderinghe recaptures"a littlerest,"the veil memoryhas spread overtherealityofHarlemis "lifted,"and he is "seeingin theirproperplaces /The cherishedhauntsof Harlemdays and nights."He realizesthatthe Harlemof theDepressionhas changed.Afterhis long exile("like one expelledfromheaven to hell"), he was "reluctantcomingback" to this"arena packed of whiteand black,/ America'sheart-breaking spectacle."The words "arena" and "spectacle"markthe culturalspacewhere McKay had foundhis "happiness" and his poeticvoice again ("These accentsforwhichoftenI would yearn/And in myexiledote upon withrapture"):"The thrilloffindingvoice to singagain." the Throughhis experienceofexileClaude McKayhad succeededin (re)capturing and the dynamic,powerfulfascinationof New Yorkand Harlemby contradictions describing,dramatizing,and evokingit in his poetrythroughapparentlycontrary images of the beautyof nature(of Jamaicaas well as of Romanticpoetry),by suspendingthelaws ofan adequate empiricaldepictionofphysicaland social realityof thelargecity.Now by returning to thephysicalrealityofHarlemhe is able to understandand communicatetheurbanrealityas a unique culturalspace thatis no longer opposed to theartofpoetry,but enablesthepoet to regainthe "voice to singagain" whichhe had, finally,lostin his exile.It is a dialecticofthepoweroftheimagination he failedto turnintopoetryduringthe followingyears,but thatopened up forhim theanalysisoftheunique culturaland politicallifeofHarlemhe presentsso power(1940). fullyin his brilliantbook Harlem:NegroMetropolis The othertwo"alternative worlds"recurring in theliterature oftheHarlemRenaissance- "Africa"and "The South"- can be discussedonlyverybriefly. Theyaredramatizedin literary worksby similarpoeticstrategiesand can also testify to thetruthof VictorTurner'sinsightthat"theexperience ofcommunitasbecomesthememory ofcommunitas"whichinturn"developsa socialstructure," an institution, suchas literature, ("Liminalto Liminoid"78). by "strivingto replicateitselfhistorically"

Africa:"I do notunderstand/This song of atavisticland / Of bitteryearningslost /Withouta place" (LangstonHughes) In Claude McKay'spoetryJamaicawas boththememoryofa worldexperiencedin childhoodand youth,and an alternative,poeticworldcreatedas a responseto the new and strangeurbanexperienceofNew YorkCityand Harlem;however,theorig316

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inal "ancient"homeofAfro-Americans, Africa,was, in theearlyyearsoftheHarlem than a inthesearch dream more Renaissance,hardly world,sheerfictional potentiality in theurbanworld."African"images,sounds, forcultural(and literary) blackidentity wereused in thepoetryto evokethe"pagan" rhythm oflifein blackHarlem, rhythms as an alternativeto Christianity, a common pre-Americanheritage.As Langston Hughes-one of the few writerswho had been in Africaat least fora shorttime-complainedinhis"Afro-American Fragment"in 1930:"So long/So faraway/Is Africa. /Not even memoriesalive /Save thisthathistorybooks create... ." Nevertheless, thepoet stillfeelsin his blood "songs ... /In strangeun-Negrotongue-" he cannot expressthem: I do notunderstand This song ofatavisticland, Of bitteryearningslost Withouta placeSo long So faraway Is Africa's Dark face.

Poems3) (Selected

Ifto theAfro-American writersAfricanculturewas no longerpartofa livingmemory or experience,if"Africa"was literally"withouta place" (Hughes), theycould transformin theirpoems theirproblemsof culturaland aestheticidentityinto strange worldsofpure imaginationthatopened up a mythicaldimensionin theirown time and place and moreoftenthannothelpedto subvertcontemporary ofthe stereotypes "darkcontinent." Thepoems oftenemphasizetheambivalenceand uneasinessofthepoetand refrain fromoffering a "solution"to his dilemma.In his famouspoem "Heritage"(1925), CounteeCullendramatizesthecultureconflict to whichhe feelsexposed by exploring thequestion,"Whatis Africato me," in suggestiveimagesand evocativesounds and ofa jungleworldas paradisaicalas itis barbarian:a worldofthedistantpast rhythms ("One three centuries removed /From the scenes his fathersloved .. ."), but at the

same timea powerfulthreatto his Western,"civilized"being: Not yethas myheartor head In theleast way realized Theyand I are civilized.

(Color41)

Thesearethefinallinesoftherevisedversionofthepoem,whereastheshorter, earlier textcloseswithan appeal to theChristianGod to forgivehimhis occasionallapse into "paganism"(Locke,NewNegro250-53). Langston Hughesrediscoveredthe"legacyoftheancestralarts"(Locke)in themusic and dances of Harlem(such as "Danse Africaine"or "Nude Young Dancer," Weary Blues105, 33). In his poem "Negro" (1922),the introductory "Proem"to The Weary 317

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Blues,Hughes adds anotherdimensionto theuse oftheAfricanpast when he relates thequestionoftheblackAmerican'shistoryand identityto theoppressiontheblack peoples on the Africancontinenthave sufferedin thepast and the present:"I am a Negro/Blackas thenightis black,/BlacklikethedepthsofmyAfrica."--a"Negro" who has been "slave," "worker,"and "victim"in Africaand in theUnitedStates,but who has also been a "singer":"AllthewayfromAfricatoGeorgia/I carriedmysorrow songs. /I made ragtime." It is thispoliticaldimensionoftheliterary worldofblackAfricathatClaudeMcKay inhisnovels.In "Africa,""Outcast," in and further some of his developed earlypoems and especiallyin "Exhortations: 1919" Summer, (HarlemShadows35, 45, 49-50),in his novel Banjo(1929),and in numerouspoliticalarticlesof the 1930she comparesthe resistanceof Afro-Americans to oppressionand exploitationto the Africanpeoples' colonialism. fightagainst McKayalso realized-in spiteofhis criticalreservationshow important theGarveyMovementofthe1920swas totheblackmassesin Harlem. Its "Pan-African" ritualsand ceremoniesmayhave been illusionaryor deceptive,but thathelped it providedmanybasic gratifications and culturaland social institutions in theblackmigrantsto achieveat least a degreeof self-confidence and self-reliance theurbanghetto.

The South:"Whattheywere,and whattheyare to me, / Carolingsoftlysouls of slavery"(JeanToomer) The thirdalternativeworldin literature thathelped the Southernmigrantsto understandthenew lifein a blackcitywithinthecityofNew Yorkwas farmorereal to them,as it was partof theirown biographies.But even though,and because, the contrastof theirNorthernurbanexperiencesto lifein the AmericanSouth was the resultof a fundamentalsocial, political,and culturalchange, "the South" was only availableto theSouthernmigrantsas a livingsourceoftheimaginationin potentially theirsearchforcollectiveidentity and urbanliterature. HavinglefttheracistSouthto reachthe "PromisedLand" of theNorth,theytendedto give up, or to be ashamed of,their"Southernheritage,"as itdid notseem to offermuchhelp in copingwiththe everydayproblemsoftheindustrialcity.However,in faceofthe "coldness,"theanof lifein the North,it was, in the end, oftenthe only onymity,the disillusionment sourcefromwhichtheycould draw imagesand visionsof a blackcultureand communityin the ghetto,a counterfactual projectionthat,nevertheless,helped to root theirquest fora new identityin Afro-American history again. If traditionalblackfolk cultureseemed out-of-date, more a in adjustingto thedifferent of hindrance useless, of the than an it also a asset, life-style largecity provided reservoirforthedialecticof culturaladaptationin a whiteracistsocietyand thereaffirmation ofblackcultureand resistancethatblacks-and especiallyblackwriters-couldtryto tap and transform. Several of LangstonHughes'spoems in The WearyBluescontrastthe "cold-faced North"and theSouthas "a land ofsun," "a land ofjoy,/Oflove and wineand song," but theyalso remindthereaderofthecrueltyand oppressionblackshad, and have, 318

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CALLALOO to sufferin the South and whichkeeps themfromfeelingat home (see 54, 99). He goes beyondthenostalgicevocationoftheclimateand thelandscape oftheSouthin a poem such as "AuntSue's Stories"(57) whichdescribeshow in theSouthAuntSue on herfrontporchtellsa "brown-faced child"storieswhichrecallthehistoryofblacks in theUnitedStatessince slaveryand the "sorrowsongs,"and whichgive thechild some orientation forhis life. Fortheblackwriterin theNortherncity,however,thepower ofthe oral tradition thatHughes's poem locatesin theSouth could regaina real culturaland communal functiononlyafterhe had historicizedit.JeanToomer's Cane(1923)attemptsa literary reconstruction of an organiccultureand communityin the South (firstpartof the book), in contrastto the coldnessoflifein thelargecities(second part),but thisrerevealsin poeticdetailthatSouthernculturehas been fullofproblems construction and tensions,thatblacksoftenhave failedto acknowledgethe historyof slaveryas theirown past ("Kabnis,"thethirdpart),and thatit is a way oflifethatis dying.In itsoverallstructure, the narratives,and the genericand stylistic Cane,a complexity, the of a immerdramatizes dialectic black "swan-song"(Toomer), twentieth-century sion narrative(Stepto)which stressesthe crucialimportanceof a consciousnessof withoutpretending historyand ofarttotheNorthernurbanblacks'questforidentity, to have foundany viable solution;a tensionof renunciationof closureand of the in theliterary longingforunityis reflected strategiesofthebook in a unique way.3

CommunalRituals:"The rhythmof life/Is a jazz rhythm""Jazzas communication"(LangstonHughes) Iftheprojectionand theliterary elaborationofthethreealternative worldscould perhaps helpblackmigrantsin Harlemto cope betterwiththeimpactofthestrangenew worldoftheurban,industrialexperienceand to relateitto theirpast and tradition, it could notdramatizeand communicateculturalritualsand communal spaceswherethe creativeprocessof developinga newsocialand culturalidentity could be workedout. Post-WorldWarI blackHarlemwas characterized clearcutseparabyan increasingly tionofthespheresof "work"and "community." The literary responseto, and transformation focuseson therealmof of,the "Harlemexperience,"therefore, primarily andcollec"cultureand community" and "dramatizes"and "enacts"Harlemas cultural in tivelife-world in scenes,rituals,and symbolic of the liminoid of literature spaces genre whichtheimagesand motifsofthealternative worldsoftheimaginationreappearin a different formand constellation. Eventhoughtheblackchurch, themostimportant in theblackcommunity institution oftheSouth,continuedto be influential in theNorthernghettoes,thewritersofthe HarlemRenaissancedid not devotemuchattentionto religiouslifeand institutions in theirworks.The new "storefront churches"could show the cultural(and social) conflictsin a changingblack congregation(see, forexample,Rudolph Fisher'svignettes"The South LingersOn"). Young writersstillcherishedthe memoryof the Blues spiritualsand ofshouting(as inLangstonHughes's religiouspoemsin TheWeary 319

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CALLALOO and FineClothestotheJew),buttheysaw in themmainlyremnantsofa past no longer thatwas at thecenterof pertinentto theirown problems.It was thesecularexperience theirwork,a secularizationofblackfolkcultureand a dramatization ofurbanrituals and publicspace that,in theend, reaffirmed thedialecticalunityofreligiousand secularblackfolkculturein a transfigured form. The keyroleofblackmusicas a collectiveexpressionofa primarily oraland performativeblackfolkculturewas theforemostchallengeto blackwritersin themodern, moreliterateculturein the Northto createliteraryformsthatcould communicatea collectiveexperienceas powerfullyas blackmusic continuedto do in the ghetto.It in relationto the also asked themto define,or to invent,theirown role as writers traditional rolemodel oftheblackcommunity, theblues singer(and, morerecently, thejazz musician).Writerssuch as LangstonHughes and SterlingBrownquicklyrealized thatit was not enough forthe writerto writeblues lyrics,but thathe had to reconstruct and rewritethe"blues experience,"theritualthatunitedblues singerand audiencein a commonexperienceofcall and responseand ofcommunity. Obviously,the "blues experience"of the South whichSterlingBrowndescribed, Road62-64) re-enacted,and reflectedin his poem ofhomage "Ma Rainey"(Southern in an incomparablemanner,had changedin the ghettoesof the North.4In manyof his poems ofthe1920s,Langston and thedimenHughesexploredthetransformation In a poem such as "Blues Fantasy"(WearyBlues sions oftheurbanblues experience.5 of a blues experienceby contrasting 37-38), he presentsfragments completeblues stanzaswithpartsofthemessageoftheblues ("Weary,/Weary,/Trouble,pain/Sun's gonna shine/Somewhere/Again"),a "somewhere"and an "again" whichmayfind theirrealizationin thelaughterand theshoutsthatpunctuatethepoem. Butitis "The ofthe WearyBlues" (23-24)thatis themostcomplexand convincingpoetictreatment "crisis"ofthe (traditional) blues experience.The poem, in irregularlinesbut almost consistently rhymed,begins withthe poet's impressionsof a blues pianisthe had heardplayinglateat nighton LenoxAvenue.Hughes describesthescene,thepianist, and his playingin expressiveimagesand quotes two stanzasofhis "WearyBlues" in blackEnglish.The poethimselftakesup thecall and responsepatternoftheblues by withinterjections such as "O syncopatinghis descriptionof theblues performance Blues!" or "Sweet Blues!" The finallines of the poem informus thattheblackblues pianistcontinuedto playand sing"farintothenight"and thenwentto bed, "While theWearyBluesechoedthroughhis head. /He sleptlikea rockora man that'sdead." Thepoemleavesundecidedhow theaudience(ifhe had one,besidesthepoet)reacted tohisperformance, and, byputtinghimselfin thepianist'splace in thefinallines,the and questionstherelevanceand thepower ofthetraditional blues poet bothaffirms in theurbanghetto. performance blues performHughes findstheculturalresponseto this"crisis"ofthetraditional ance (and experience)in the predominantly instrumental jazz music of the urban ghetto,a musicthat,fromearlyjazz to bebop, was an endless sourceofinspiration and challengein his poetryforall his life.In jazz he discoveredthe keyto theheart oftheurbanblackcommunity, and he triedto reproduce,in a transformed manner, its aestheticand communicative and textureof his qualityin the sounds, rhythms, (1951)and AskYourMama(1961).But poems,especiallyin Montageofa DreamDeferred 320

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CALLALOO evenin themid-1920s,when he wrotehis manifesto"The NegroArtistand theRacial Mountain,"jazz was one oftheinherentexpressionsofNegrolifeinAmerica:theeternal tom-tombeatingin the Negro soul-the tom-tomof revolt againstthewearinessin a whiteworld,a worldofsubwaytrains, and work,work,work;the tom-tomof joy and laughter,and pain swallowedin a smile. ("NegroArtist"694) ForHughes, thefolktradition, especiallytheblues, but to some extentalso thespirhad a found new in jazz, in a musicofthe "commonpeople," the incarnation ituals, "low-downfolks,"thatexpressedthe rhythmof lifeof the blackcommunityin the urbanNorthand would be thefoundationofan authenticblackartin thefuture.In hispoem "LenoxAvenue:Midnight,"a kindofresponseto thecallof"BluesFantasy" and "The WearyBlues,"he writes: The rhythmoflife Is a jazz rhythm, Honey. The gods are laughingat us. The brokenheartoflove, The weary,wearyheartofpain,Overtones, Undertones, To therumbleofstreetcars, To the swish ofrain.

(WearyBlues39)

oflifethatoffersa subversive("rebel")alternative to the Jazzgivesvoice to a rhythm "standardizations"of whiteurbanizedand industrializedAmerica("Negro Artist" thataffirms thecreativepotential 693). Itis a visionofa blackcultureand community oflifein thecity,a visionofthe"jazz people" thatincludesall blackHarlemites.It is a visioneveryettobe realized,as he laterputsitinhisessay"Jazzas Communication": "To me jazz is a montageofa dreamdeferred.A greatbig dream-yet to come-and and finallytrue"(HughesReader494). alwaysyet-to becomeultimately

of communitas SymbolicSpace: "cabarets"and themanifestation In theliterature oftheHarlemRenaissance,theefforts to understandthepotential ofcommunitasin theurbanexperiencein Harlembyconstructing alternative worlds of the imagination,and the processof transforming the traditionaloral folkculture and community, especiallythebluesand thespiritualsand theirexperience,into"jazz 321

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rhythms"as expressionand communicationof an alternative,secularizedurban world,findtheirsymbolicspace in thecabarets dance-halls).The black (night-clubs, writersrealizedthatthecabaretswereplaces ofentertainment, oftenwithan "exotic" touch,some cateringto a whiteclientele,but in theirliterarywork theywere not interestedin paintinga "realistic"pictureof the entertainment primarily industry. Even ifonlyten percentof theblackpopulationin Harlemfrequenteda night-club, as David LeveringLewis argues in his book WhenHarlemWasIn Vogue(1981),the cabaretsplayeda veryimportant thatwas tryingto workout rolein a blackliterature and dramatizea new culturalidentityoftheora blackcommunity.6 The cabaretsprovide a communalspace in whichthe social structureof everydaylifeis suspended and the "communityritual"ofjazz and dance of the "jazz people" takesplace, but whichalso turnstheimaginationback upon its own social sourcesand contexts.In black literatureof the 1920s, cabaretsare both a liminalspace ("acculturation"of Southernmigrants, their"initiation"into"cityculture,""socialization"oftheyoung) anda liminoid space(suspensionofthenew and demandingroutineof"work,"ofeveryvalues, behavior;the potential,imaginativedimensionof communitas day rhythm, in social "reality"). ClaudeMcKay'searlyHarlempoems emphasizethe darksides of a Negro Harlem in themaking,such as theyoungprostitute's fatein "HarlemShadows"(1918;McKay on theperformance of a black 22). "The HarlemDancer" (1917)commentscritically dancerin a cabaretand the "applaudingyouths"and "youngprostitutes" who "devouredhershape witheager,passionategaze." Ittearstheveilfromthe"fake"beauty and laughter,but vindicatesa glimpseof hope since the dancerknows thatshe is "displaced"in thecabaret: Butlookingat herfalsely-smiling face, I knewher selfwas notin thatstrangeplace. (HarlemShadows42) in his story"TheWhatMcKay describesas a "strangeplace," is used byJeanToomer ater"(fromthemiddlepartofCane)as a secularizedurbanspace in orderto characterizethe central-and disastrous--conflict or splitbetweenmindand body thathe considerscharacteristic ofthe"machineage" and theanonymouslargecity.He contraststheprofoundalienationand thesocial pressurethetwo maincharactersexperiencein thetheaterduringtheafternoonwiththevitalityof "throbbing jazz songs" and nearand ofthecollectiveritualsin "niggeralleys,... pool roomsand restaurants beer saloons" and "cabarets":"Black-skinned, theydance and shoutabove the tick and thrillof white-walledbuildings... At night,road-showvolleysongs intothe mass-heartof blackpeople" (Cane91). The storyconfirmsthatthe cabarets,danceas communalspace onlywhen halls,and theatersacquiretheirsymbolicsignificance and the betweenperformof interaction thecollectiveritual music,singing,dancing, are of social conflicts and and Without this ritual ers audiencetakesplace. they places it as in dead, emptyrooms, Langston Hughesput "Sport": exploitation, 322

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Then at theclosinghour The lightsgo out And thereis no musicat all And deathbecomes An emptycabaret And eternity an unblownsaxophone.

(FineClothes 40)

or in "HarlemDance Hall": It had no dignitybefore. Butwhen theband began to play, Suddenlytheearthwas there, And flowers, Trees, And air, And likea wave thefloor(Fields94) The two quotationsshow how closelyHughes identifiedwith the "regenerative" power ofthe communalritualsperformedin thecabarets,how "naturally"communitasmanifestsitselfin theimages,sounds, and rhythmsofhis "cabaretpoems." In "Jazzonia"(WearyBlues25) the imaginativeworld of Africa("Oh, silvertree!/Oh, shiningriversofthe soul!") and thecabaretscene mergein theplayingof "six longheaded jazzers" and thedancingofa girl"whose eyes are bold /[and who] liftshigh a dressofsilkengold,"impressionsthatassociateEve in paradisewithCleopatra,as two dark-skinned beauties. The poem closes witha slightlydifferent versionof the leitmotifs and confirmstheparticipation ofthe audiencein theritual:"In a whirling cabaret/Six long-headedjazzers play." Ifin "Jazzonia"Harlemis thelandofjazz, in his poems "HarlemNightClub" and "LenoxAvenue:Midnight"(Weary oflife/Is a jazz rhythm," Blues32, 39) the"rhythm alivein themusicofthejazz band and thedance ofthevisitors:"Tomorrow... who knows?/Dance today!/ ... /Tomorrow... is darkness./Joytoday."He does not ignorethenegativeaspectsofthecabaretscene,the"unkindness"ofthe"greatdark Blues104,100),butin city"("Disillusion";compare"LamentforDark People," Weary of his the the where thejazz people are many "experimental" poems night-clubs place can experiencethenewurbanrhythm ina kindofmodern oflifeas one ofcommunitas, urban"tribalritual"(Turner)in whichtheworriesofeverydaylifeare suspended.For Hughes, thisexperienceis not one of the "hip" few,but forall thejazz people, the "low-downfolks,"the"commonpeople" towhomhe dedicatesseveralofhispoems, 28-29,38,39,59,66),and whomhe sees united especiallytotheirwork(see FineClothes as "mypeople," in spiteofall thedifferences in theiroccupations,activities,socialor moralstatus: 32;

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CALLALOO Dream singers, Storytellers, Dancers, Loud laughersin thehands ofFateMy people. Dish-washers, Elevator-boys, Ladies' maids, Crap-shooters, Cooks, Waiters, Jazzers, Nurses ofbabies, Loaders ofships, Rounders, Numberwriters, Comediansin vaudeville And band-menin circuses-all,Dream-singers My people. Singersand dancers. Dancersand laughers.

("Laughers,"FineClothes77-78)

as symbolicspace forthe Nevertheless,thecabaretcould functionin blackliterature ritualofthemanifestation ofa new urbanblackcultureand community onlyas long as itwas a blackliminaland liminoidspace. As soon as thedowntownwhitesbegan themfortheirown purdrivingblacksout ofthefamouscabaretsand appropriating poses (as, forinstance,the historyof the CottonClub shows [see Haskins] and as RudolphFisherin hiswittyessay "The Caucasian StormsHarlem"documentedat the time[Fisher,"PromisedLand"]) the cabaretstartedlosingits suggestivepower and culturalpotentialfortheblackwriter.SterlingBrown'sextraordinarily complexand subtlepoem "Cabaret,"locatedin "Blackand Tan Chicago" in theyearofthe Great whichthe MississippiFlood of 1927,presentsin a radicalway all the contradictions writersoftheHarlemRenaissancewho used to exploreformsofblackcommunitasin thesymbolicsettingofthecabarethad to faceat theend ofthe 1920s.In some ofhis laterpoems LangstonHughes also acknowledgesthe loss of the black culturalsignificanceof the cabarets and accuses the whites, "You've taken my blues and gone-" and "You also tookmyspiritualsand gone,"buthe feelsthat"someday"he willreappropriate themand createand sustainhis own institutions forliterature, music, and theater,"Blackand beautiful"(see "Note on CommercialTheatre,"One Way Ticket81). Blackwritershad to discoverand imagineothersymbolicspaces forexploringblackurbancommunitas.

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CALLALOO HarlemAs a Community:"a naked worldwhose realitywas hitherto unimaginable"(Claude McKay, Home to Harlem) IfLangstonHughes focusedin his poetry on theculturalroleofblackmusic,on the communalritualenacted in the cabarets/jazzclubs as symbolicexpressionof communitas,ClaudeMcKayin his famousnovelHometoHarlem(1928) places the (black) cabaretsin thecontextofhis effort to offera pictureofHarlemas a whole,ofthetension ofsocialstructure and communitasin blackHarlem,ofa worldhe characterizes as "a naked worldwhose realitywas hithertounimaginable." In McKay'snoveloftheHarlemof1920,to the"commonworkadayNegroesofthe Belt"their(all-black)cabaretswerethe"commonground"wherethey(oratleastsome ofthem,such as Jake,the "hero" ofthebook, and Felice,thewoman he loses at the beginning,butmeetsagainneartheend ofthenovel)experiencethetransient feeling of happiness and communitas:"They were all drawntogetherin one unitedmass, aroundtothesame primitive, wriggling voluptuousrhythm." McKayagainand again describesthedifferences inbackground,temperament, and experienceamongtheHarlemites,especiallybetweenJake(fromVirginia)and theWestIndianRay,and he also describesthemat work,in the sphereofwork(as distinctfromthatof community). He shows thatHarlemis a worldofits own thatcannotbe adequatelygraspedfrom the outside,but a worldin the makingwhose laws, values, ritualsand dreamsthe Harlemiteshave set out to exploreand understand.As McKayputs it fromtheperspectiveofJake'sfriendand colleague,thesleeping-car porterand prospectivewriter Ray: in his home ButRaywas nothappy.The sudden upsetofaffairs had the heart of a naked landed him into country quivering world whose realitywas hithertounimaginable.It was what theycalled in printand polite conversation'the underworld.' . . Why underworld he could neverunderstand.It was very muchupon thesurfaceas weretheotherdivisionsofhumanlife. Havingitsheightsand middleand depthsand secretplaces even as they.And the people of thisworld,waiters,cooks, chaufhands- all touchedin a thoufeurs,sailors,hod-carriers, factory sand ways thepeople oftheotherdivisions.Theyworkedover thereand sleptoverhere,dividedby a street.(224-25) The black cabaretsare oneimportantpartof the world thatto Ray is fullof contradictions,a "brutal"world he "hates" sometimes,but whichalso is endlesslyfascinatingto him,wherehe "had knownhappiness,too" (266-67). McKay describesthe physicalpresenceof Harlemand its avenues and streetsas in manycolorfulpassages ofthenovel,but well as thegreatvarietyofitsinhabitants he does not attemptto drawa "realistic"pictureofHarlem.Ifitis, to him,a "naked thewriter has to imagine,"invent," worldwhose realitywas hithertounimaginable," culture and and presenta new urban community.Again it is throughRay thathe, for cultural and communalidentityas an endeavorofthelitcharacterizes thisquest eraryimagination:

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CALLALOO Rayhad alwaysdreamedofwritingwordssome day ... Dreams ofpatternsofwordsachievingform... Dreamsofmakingsomethingwithwords.Whatcould he make ... and fashion?Could he evercreateArt?Art,aroundwhichvague, incomprehensible wordsand phrasesstormed?Whatwas art,anyway?... Could he createout of the fertilerealityaround him?Of Jakenosing throughlife,a handsomehound,quickto snap up anytempting morselofpoisonedmeatthrowncarelesslyon thepavement?Of a workpal he had visitedin thevenerealwardofBellevue,where youthslolled sadly about? And the miserythatoverwhelmed himthere,untillifeappearedlikeone big disease and theworld a vast hospital?(225-29) "Dreams of patternsof words achievingform";"creatingout of the fertilereality aroundhim":ifthisdefinesthetaskoftheHarlemwriterand a poeticsofa new black urbanliterature, HometoHarlemalso indicatesthatthewriterfacesa specifichistorical task,thathe has torespondto socialand culturalchange.The Harlemofthelate1920s was different in thenovel. Its cabaretshad becomemore fromtheone reconstructed and morefrequentedand occupiedbywhites.Thereweremany"Harlems,"as itwas "a vitalbut chaoticallydisorganizedcommunity"(McKay, in Cooper 30), and the writerhad to look forotherliterary strategiesand "topoi." Indeed, blackwritersduringthelate twentiesdiscoveredor createdothersymbolic ritualsthatcouldhelp to dramatizetheconflicts, tensions,and the spacesandcommunal communalidentityof black Harlem.In his shortstories,writtenbetween1925and in thetypicaltenement houseswhereall kindsof 1933,RudolphFisherused theairshaft scentsand sounds intermingled and whichcould tellstoriesof poverty,of love, of betweengenerationsand betweenreligiousand secjealousy,ofquarrels,ofconflicts ularways oflife,but onlyrarelyofsolidarityand community. An airshaft:cabbage and chitterlings cooking;liverand onions threeplayer-pianos eachother; sizzling,sputtering; outplunking a man and a woman callingeach othervile things;a sick,neglectedbabywailing;a phonographbroadcastingblues; dishes waste noises,waste odors clacking;a girlcryingheartbrokenly; ofa scoreoffamilies,seekingissue througha commonchannel; pollutionfrombottomto top-a sewer of sounds and smells. ("CityofRefuge"180) Out of the airshaftsounds came to her,sounds of the land of promise.Noise of a rentpartysomewherebelow froma tiny dwellingthathad to be hiredout ifitwas to be dweltin at allpeculiarfeatureof a place whereyourown home wasn't your own. Noise of a money quarrel somewhereabove, charges, taunts,disputes-fruitsofa landwheresuddenwide differences inworkand pay summoneddisaster.Noise ofsinfulsingingand breedofa citywherechildancing,pastimeofEllie'sgeneration, drencursedand threatenedtheold and wentfree.("The Promised Land" 45) Thebarbershop (or"tonsorialpalace") and itsmaleverbalrituals(as in "BladesofSteel") and the publicdances(as in "CommonMeter"wherein a "battleof the bands" two 326

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formsofjazz and two "philosophiesoflife"competefortheacclaimofa largeaudience,oras in hisnovelTheWallsofJericho, 1928)areothercommunalplaces and events whose culturalsignificance Fisherexplores.Or the street.Ifin Toomer'sshortpiece "SeventhStreet,"whichopens themiddlepartof Cane,thestreetis evoked as some kindofsymbolicforce,in Fisher'sstoriesitis the "commonground"wheretheconflictsoftheblackHarlemcommunity inthemakingareenactedand madepublic:135th Street,"the commonground,the naturalscene of unusual contacts,a regionthat disregardsclass" ("Blades ofSteel" 183). It is in Fisher'sshortstoriesthatwe findsomethinglikea "realistic" -often humorous and ironical-pictureof Harlem and its communitylife,or at least some fragments.TakentogetherwithTheWallsofJericho, theypresenta kindofphysical,social, in the late 1920s and early1930s.7The Harlem cultural,and linguistictopography of stories,sketches,and the novel are the fictionalethnographyof a communitythat continuesto be dominatedby theconflict betweengenerations(as in "The Promised Land," "Miss Cynthie"),betweenthe old Southern(stronglyreligious)values and folkwaysand the ethos and behaviorof a new urbanway of life(as in "The South LingersOn," "The Cityof Refuge"),betweenSouthernmigrantsand WestIndians and theircolorprejudices(as in "Ringtail").But Fisheralso indicatespossibilitiesof solvingtheconflicts by alwaysgivingeach side itsdue and by suggestinga reconciliationof"tradition" and "modernity," of"country"and "city,"ofreligiousand secular culture,as in his story"Miss Cynthie."Fishernotesthe tracesof social and cultural establishedand orchange,but he also shows thatHarlemhas become morefirmly and thatblackHarlemites-inspiteoftheobviouseconomic ganizedas a community problemsand social conflicts-holdon to the dreamof a blackmetropolis,a dream (1930). eloquentlyelaboratedin JamesWeldonJohnson'sBlackManhattan

FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION TO THE GHETTO RIOTS OF THE 1960s The decade of the GreatDepressionbroughtthe end of the literary movementof theHarlemRenaissanceand destroyedtheeconomicand socialbasis ofthedreamof a blackmetropolis.The ReportoftheMayor'sCommissionon theHarlemRiotof1935, writtenby youngsociologistE. FranklinFrazier,documentedthatHarlemhad fully turnedintoa ghettoand thatlargepartsofit had deteriorated intoa slum. Poverty, were widespread. The Commissionpointsout thatthe crime,and police brutality cause ofthesedisastrousconditionslay,ultimately, in thecapitalisteconomicsystem; were theliterary intellec"reforms" insufficient. therefore, Nevertheless, superficial tualsheld on to thecentralroleofHarlemin thedevelopmentofblackAmerica.In a soberingessay on theHarlemRiotand theMayor'sReport,AlainLocke wrote,"The same logicby whichHarlemled theNegrorenaissancedictatesthatit mustlead the economicreconstruction whichwe have been considering" and social reformation ("Harlem"495). A fewyearslater,Claude McKayclaimedin hisHarlem:NegroMetropolisthatHarlem,in spiteofits"grimmisery"and its"slumfeatures,""does notexude 327

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theatmosphereoftheslums,"thatit remainsthe "queen ofblackbelts,"the"Negro a "movepoliticalmaturity, capitaloftheworld,"and thatithas achieveda remarkable mentoftheNegropeople towardsgreaterself-development and community autonwho and scientists the edited, 21, omy"(15-16, 198).Only youngsociologists political or published in, the Journal ofNegroEducation,especiallyE. FranklinFrazierand CharlesS. Johnson,unequivocallyapplied theterms"ghetto"and "slum" to Harlem and otherblackurbancommunities, attackedthecapitalistsystemforitsexploitation and racism,asked the black communityto give up its traditionalfolkcultureas an impedimentto the Negro's "second emancipation,"and called fora unitedfrontof blackand whiteworkers.8ForHarlem,and forblack Americain general,the 1940s were a timeofcrisis(such as theHarlemRiotof1943),ofsocialand culturalchange, and also a periodofrenewedemphasison blackcultureand politics,whichchallenged blackwritersto workout new literaryformsand strategiesin orderto graspthe ditothecommonculturaland politmensionsoftheghettoexperienceand tocontribute ical fightagainstoppressionand thedominantculture.Establishedwritersreconsidered theirliteraryapproach to ghettolife,and a new generationof youngwriters, and formstotestand toproject manyofthemfromChicago,developednew strategies inthesocialsettingofthedeteriorating blackculturaland communalidentity ghettoes. As Horace Caytonand St. ClairDrake put it in theircomprehensiveand influential and physical (1945),in spiteofghettoization studyofblackChicago,BlackMetropolis decay,Harlemis "Bronzeville"to itsblackinhabitants.

Harlem:"Montageof a Dream Deferred"-"the Music of a Communityin Transition"(LangstonHughes) LangstonHughes's poems ofthe1930swerewrittenin a politicalatmospherevery different fromthat of the Harlem Renaissance. They take up the "experimental" poems dealingwithblackworkingclass experiencewhichhad led MargaretLarkinin her reviewof FineClothesto theJewto celebratehim as "a poet forthe people," "a ProletarianPoet" (Larkin,"Poet"). The focusof the poems is less on the individual thanon types,generalizations, and explicitpoliticalmessages.Hughes's politicalcomLimited mitment is documentedin his pamphletsScottsboro (1932),A NewSong(1938), and theposthumouscollectionGoodMorningRevolution ofblack (1973).The suffering Americansis seen as one (albeitparticularly striking)aspect of a generalstructural problemof capitalistsocietywhichtheproletarianwriterhas to expose and criticize in his workfroma revolutionary perspective.Still,manyofHughes's protestpoems, shortstories,dramas(see especiallythesuccessfulradicalrevueofhis "folkpoems," Don't You Wantto Be Free?,1937),essays, and speeches touch on blackhistoryand resistance,occasionallymake use of the secularblack folktradition(the Christian churchis violentlyattackedas oppressive),and, in spiteofa markedloss ofconcreteness in imageryand complexityin sound and rhythm,considerablyexpand the litThe whole imaginative ofworkersin blackliterature. eraryhorizonforthetreatment worldofHarlemand ofthecabaretsis strikingly absent.The ghettois understoodnot 328

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CALLALOO as a culturalspace forthe dramatization ofcommunalidentity, but as a symptomof of the black capitalistexploitation minority. Afterthe failureof all social revolutionary efforts and hopes and the end of "proletarianliterature," the to Harlem,to theHarlemof of returns 1940s Hughes's poetry theriotsof1935and of 1943,no longerthatoftheHarlemRenaissanceand the "Jazz in Harlem(1942),FieldsofWonder (1947),One Age." His books of poetry,Shakespeare (1951),are literaryapproachesto WayTicket(1949),and Montageofa DreamDeferred this"new" Harlemthat,to him,does notonlyhouse "a beatenpeople" (Davis), but also a veryrichcommunity and culture.Many ofthecentralmotifs,images,and literarystrategiesreappearin a transformed way, revisedin thelightofan acute social and politicalconsciousness.Whereas Shakespeare in Harlemcollectspoems thatdescribeand criticize,in different poeticforms,the social situationofAfro-Americans, and trytoadaptthebluesformto socialprotestpoetry,One WayTicket is characterized moreradicallybyHughes's persistentefforts to develop new literary strategiesforan lifein thedeteriorating expressionofthecommunity ghettoofHarlem.In a realsense, to Harlemitesthis "communitylife"is "hell,"but at the same timeit is "home" to them,"To me it's here"("Puzzled," "Visitorsto theBlackBelt,"One WayTicket71-72, 65-66). Butwhatdoes Hughes meanbythis"home"in the"hell"ofHarlem?Wheredo the people ofHarlemfindit?How does Hughes dramatizeit in his poetryofthe "new" Harlem? In a shortessay, publishedin 1944,"Down Underin Harlem,"Hughes writes: Louis Jordanon the juke-box,loud. Over the music the woman behindthe countersaid, "This timeof night,all these youngboys oughtto be home." "That's right,"I said. Home. A dozen names on the bell. Roomersall over the house. No place fora kidtobringhisfriends.Onlythepool halls open, thecandystoresthatboot-legliquor,thebarbecuestands whereyou can listento the juke-boxeven ifyou'rebrokeand don'twanttobuyanything, and thelongHarlemstreetsoutside dimmed out because Hitlermightsend his planes overhead some darknight.(405) The passage can be read as a keyto Hughes's Harlempoetryofthe 1940s.It reveals thatthereal"home"tomostyoungblackHarlemitesis nottherundown,overcrowded is theplacewheretheirsocialization apartments theyhave tolivein,butratherthestreet and socialinterchange takesplace, wherea "streetculture,"a "ghettoculture"is created intowhichtheyare initiated.Thisstreetor ghettoculturemanifestsitselfin new urbanritualsand speech behavior(Kochman)and findsits symbolicspace in black "barrelhouses,""candystores,""fishjoints,"as Hughescalls "poolhalls,""juice-joints," themin his poems. The blackrhythm andbluesofthetimeis "on thejuke-box,louder" in Under the commonfeelingsand dreams(fromthe ("Down Harlem"),reflecting "I'm town . .")-and thecommonfrustration move ... of of outskirts lyrics: gonna Harlemites. (and older) young The significance of the "juice-joints"in the main streetsof the ghettoas physical 329

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CALLALOO and symbolic,as liminaland liminoidspace forcultureand communityis paradigmaticallyexpressedin Hughes's "JuiceJoint:NorthernCity"(One WayTicket67-69, earlierversion:"BarrelHouse: IndustrialCity,"in Yoseloff48-49). Most ofthetypical imagesoftheblues,jazz, and cabaretpoetryofthe1920srecur,butnow theyare part mill""on theavenue"/"on ofa different "scene,"ofa "barrelhouse"/"juicejoint"/"gin thiscitystreet."Hughes describesa place where the young and the old, men and and theirdreams,a place and a scene women,meetand exchangetheirfrustrations of naked social realityand all its problems,but also of communication, memories, and when and The "black "dance," "sometimes," "dream," "laugh," play, joy. boys" or "suddenly,"one oftheblackboys plays on his guitara "song thatonce was sung beneaththe sun /In lazy far-off Southern drowsySoutherndays." By remembering blackfolkculture,thepoem historicizes thealienationand displacementto whichthe blackmigrantshave been exposed in theNorthernindustrialcities("thatlonghegira ... /Thatbroughtdarkfaces/And gay dancingfeet/Intothisginmill/On thiscity street").The poet encouragesthe"night-dark boys" and thewomento singand play theirsongs, the "blues" that"echo the age-less,age-longold despair /That fillsa woman's age-less,age-longpain," but thatalso lead everyonein the "joint"to "join you in yoursong," to "drinkand play and sing,""laugh,"and "dance" "on the city street."Hughesindicatesclearlythatthisritualofa sustainingcultureand community happens only"sometimes,""suddenly,"thatit suspendseverydayghettolife("keep thegall frombitingin his mouth"),butitaffirms thepossibilityofcommunitaseven "on the edge ofhell/In Harlem." whichaccordingto Hughes is to be read as onepoem Montageofa DreamDeferred, of "contemporary Harlem"as a whole,ofa "community intran(ormontage),is a portrait note: sition,"as he puts itin his prefatory In terms of currentAfro-American popular music and the sources fromwhich it has progressed-jazz, ragtime,swing, blues,boogie-woogie,and be-bop-this poem on contemporary Harlem,likebe-bop,is markedby conflicting changes,sudden brokenrhythms, nuances, sharp and impudentinterjections, and passages sometimesinthemannerofthejam session,sometimesthe popular song, punctuatedby the riffs,runs,breaks, in transition. and distortions ofthemusicofa community It is a portraitfullofbitterness, ofanger,ofwarningsto thewhites,but also ofcreatenacious and dreams-all tivity, hope, expressedin responseto thesounds, forms, and rhythms oftraditional and modernblackmusic.As theterms"montage"and "jam session" openlyannounce,Hughes does notseek to attaina "completewhole," but and the process of changethatare typicalforthiscomemphasizesthe contradictions in transition. different munity Many "experimental"formsand poeticstrategiescontributeto thismontageor jam session. But Hughes also triesto create,or lay bare, somekindsofinteraction, ofcommonproblemsand purposes,some tracesofcultural and communalidentity. He uses "dream"and "music"as leitmotifs thatcompriseall dimensionsofcommunity, to thepowerof culture,society,and politics.Theytestify theimaginationand ofthedialecticbetweentradition("blues" and "boogie-woogie") and the new. The factthatHughes featuresespeciallythe mostrecentformofjazz, 330

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thebebop ofCharlieParker,Dizzy Gillespie,and TheloniousMonk,and uses its"conflictingchanges, sudden nuances, sharp and impudent interjections,broken rhythms"as the structural principleofhis book, does not onlydemonstratetheimblackmusic provisational, dynamic,expressivequalityofblackculture,butrepresents itselfas a political act ofculturalliberationfromwhitedominationand ofaffirmation ofa viableblackghettoculture.Indeed,bebopwas therevoltofyoungblackmusicians oftheghettoagainstthecommercialization of "swingmusic" duringthe 1930s/early 1940sandthefirstmanifestation ofgenuineblack"artmusic" (ArchieShepp). is thepoeticequivalentofthisprocessofculturalrenewal Montageofa DreamDeferred and reconstruction. Hughes continuesto writeabout everydaylifein Harlem,about and socialand politicaldiscrimination, economicexploitation and thehistoricalroots and preconditionsof the presentproblemsof the "Harlemof thebitterdream"(see 8, 10, 16, 18, 24, 39, 42f.,51, 57). For the firsttime,jazz (not blues) is theformative principle(notonlysubjectmatterorvisionoflife)ofa wholebookofpoetry.Religious and secularmusichave become complementary aspects of a realmoffreedomto be and cultureofHarlemmanifest themrealized,ofa "dreamdeferred."The community selves in "streetscenes," "streetsongs," "parades," "dances," "jam sessions," on "streetcorners,""juke boxes," in "cafes:3 a.m.," "bars," "moviehouses," and jazz joints("Minton'sPlayhouse"). in whichall The firstpoem ofthebook, "Dream Boogie,"delineatestheforcefield theelementsofthe(musicormontageofthe)community in transition willbe placed. It introducesseveralleitmotifs ("Good morning,daddy!/Ain'tyou heard,"or "The boogie-woogierumble/ Of a dream deferred,"or the bebop motif),contrastsand combinesthe musicaltraditionand the bebop of the period,reads the "dream deferred"in thesound and rhythm ofmusic,butalso asks thereader/audience to "listen closely,"to be open to the message of black music, of the "dream," thatoftenis drownedin thedin ofeverydaylife."Dream Boogie:Variation,"thelastpoem before thefinalpartofthebook(68),and totallydifferent inimagesand style,further explores the relationshipbetweenblack music and "freedom,"freedombothin the religious sense of the spirituals("Freedom Train") and the more secular,politicalsense of Hughes's poem "FreedomTrain"whichwe findearlierin thebook. The finalsection ofMontageofa DreamDeferred is called "Lenox AvenueMural" (71-75)and confronts ofjazz and otherblackmusicwiththehistoricaland culturalgeographyof fragments Harlem.It beginswithopen questions,thefamouspoem "Harlem":"Whathappens toa dreamdeferred? /Does itdryup likea raisininthesun?/... /Ordoesitexplode?" the "riots"ofthe 1960s."Good Morning"and "Same in Blues" are thusanticipating variationson theleitmotif ofthedreamdeferred,on theliterary use ofblackmusical forms.Theyreferback to thefirstpoem ofthebook, and "reconstruct" thehistorical originsofblackHarlem("Good morning,daddy!/I was bornhere,he said, /watched Harlemgrow/untilcoloredfolksspread.. ."). Thebookcloseswiththepoem "Island" whichdefines Harlemas place, as an "island" in New YorkCity,as a multi-colored in community whiteAmerica. Betweentwo rivers Northofthepark, 331

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CALLALOO Like darkerrivers The streetsare dark. Blackand white Gold and brownChocolatecustard Pie ofa town. Dreamwithin a dream, Ourdreamdeferred. Good morning,daddy! Ain'tyou heard? The "dreamdeferred"ofblacksinHarlem(and inall theUnitedStates)is placedwithin thewidercontextoftheAmericandreamthatstillawaitsitsrealization.Hughes has finallysucceeded in condensingthe complexjam session and montageof images, leitmotifs, sounds, symbolicspaces, and culturalrituals,intosome kindof rhythms, from the message past and presentto the future,but he immediatelysuspends or it counterpoints byaddingthefirsttwolinesofthebook, of"Dream Boogie" (as well as of"Good Morning"),thusgivingthepeople ofHarlemthefinalwords:finalwords whichmayalso ask thereaderofMontageofa DreamDeferred to thinkaboutthefuture ofthis"community in transition."

The Street:"walled enclosuresfromwhichtherewas no escape" (Ann Petry)-the (de)formative power of theghettoenvironment Ann Petry'sHarlem novel TheStreet(1946), a naturalistic, "social protest"novel writtenin theveinofWright'sNativeSon(1940),aimsto show,as theauthorputiton theoccasionofitspublication, how simplyand easilythe environment can changethecourse ofa person'slife.ForthispurposeI have made Lindy[sic]Johnson an intelligent, woman witha fairdeambitious,attractive gree of education.She lives in the squalor of 116thStreet,but she retainsher self-respect and fightsto bringup her littleson decently. I want to show why the Negro has a highcrimerate,a high deathrate,and littleorno chanceofkeepinghisfamily unitintact inlargenorthern inthebookthough cities.Thereareno statistics theyare presentin the background,not as columnsof figures but in termsof what lifeis like forpeople who live in overcrowdedtenements.(quoted in Ivy49)

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Blackpeople livingin theghettoare seen as victimsofcircumstances, ofan environmenttheycannotcontrol.Petrygoes beyondNativeSonbyshowingthe(whiteas well as black) sexismblackwomen have to facedailyat workand in their"community," and byportraying a youngwomanwitha strongmoralidentity who is determinedto fails,thatshe can neither fightback.Butthebook showsthatLutieJohnsoninevitably save herfamily,norher son, nor,in theend, hermoralintegrity. Ann Petry'ssparse documentarystyleand her changes in the narrativepointof view offerLutieJohnsonand, occasionally,othercharactersa chance to give "testimony" of theirexperienceand thoughts.Petryherselfhad acquired an intimate Buttheemphasis knowledgeoftheevilsoftheghettoas a Harlemnewspaperreporter. on the(de)formative in naturalistic fictionactuallyproduces poweroftheenvironment thesymbolic scenesandspaceswhichoffera readingofphysicaland socialreality.Petry condensesherinterpretation, as thetitleofhernovelindicates,intoone image,symand "the Street." The streetis, firstofall, 116thStreetin Harlem,a particbol, space, ular blockwithdirtyapartmenthouses and theirvictimized,sometimesperverted, and also a neighborhood bar,Junto's.Thebookcontainsseveralextensive inhabitants, of the in different seasons oftheyear,at day and at night,and in Street, descriptions one longpassage theauthordramatizesthestreet life,thestreetas an "outdoorliving room"or "bedroom,"and Junto'sBar as the "social club and meetingplace" (7, 4445, 92-93,206). But Petrymakes clearthatthe "laughingand talkingto each other," thebuzzingstreetlife,is nottheexpressionofa genuineblackurbancultureand comofpsychicdismunity,but onlytheresultofabjectlivingconditions,offrustration, of placement, escapism. No matterwhat it costthem,people had to come to places like theJunto,she thought.Theyhad to replacethehauntingsilence ofrentedroomsand littleapartments withthemurmurofvoices, the sound of laughter;theyhad to emptytwo or threesmall glasses ofliquidgold so theycouldbelievein themselvesagain. (95) To Petry,"theStreet"is mainlya corrupting influenceon Lutie's son: [Thestreet]becamebothmotherand fatherand trainedyourkid foryou, and it was an evil fatherand a viciousmother,and, of course, you helped the streetalong by talkingto him about money.(252) threatshe LutieJohnsonherself,however,is notpartof "the street."It is an external it" (40). she for would afraid its "she wasn't of influence, fight against fightsagainst: She triesto stayseparate,and theonlytimeshejoinsin thestreetlifeand visitsJunto's Bar,provesfatalto herfightforsurvivaland to all herdreams. Lutie'sdreamis, firstofall, theverybasic wish to geta chanceto live a decentlife and to save her son and herselffromthe corruptionof ghettolife.Rentingher own apartmentseems to hera firststeptowardfreedom,but she soon realizesthatshe is "caged hereon thisstreet,"thatitis a prisonthatdoes notgiveher"roomtobreathe,"

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thatshe has to "leave streetslikethisbehindher" (40,99, 104,117,130,144,201,219, toleave theghettobehind 224).She has no wayofexpressingherstrongdetermination the of the American dream whichassertsyou can exceptby employing stereotype to "makeit" ifyou onlytryhardenough,sinceheronlyexperienceofan alternative her work with the rich white Chandlers in Connecticut. She wants life had been ghetto to workher way out of "thisstreet,"or later,to sing her way out of the streetas a blues singer,but she failsdismallyand is insteadfullyexposed to whiteand black sexismand exploitation (139).Forher,thereis no way to escape the"circle"ofvictimin theghetto,and she finally realizeswhy:"becauseifyouwere izationand frustration blackand you livedin New Yorkand you could onlypay so muchrent,why,you had to live in a house likethisone" (252, see also 116). "The hate in herincreased,"and thegeneralmeaningof "the street"to blackAmericansbecomesclearto her: Streetsliketheone she livedon wereno accident.Theywerethe the methodthe big North'slynchmobs, she thoughtbitterly; citiesused to keep Negroesin theirplace. And she began thinkbeing of Pop unable to get a job; ofJimslowlydisintegrating cause he, too, couldn'tget a job, and of the subsequentwreck of theirmarriage;of Bub leftto his own devices afterschool. Fromthetimeshe was born,she had been hemmedintoan evernarrowingspace, untilnow she was verynearlywalled in and thewall had been builtup brickby brickby eagerwhitehands. (200-201) In TheStreet we do notfindthe "myth"ofHarlemor LangstonHughes's "dream" Harlem is stilla retreatforblacksfromwhiteracism;see 40). Harlemis (even though nota black"community" withanythinglikea viablecultureorinstitutions ofitsown. There is hardlyany solidarityamong its inhabitants,not even among the black women,butmainlyexploitation, racism,sexism,and a brutalfightforsurvival.Petry triestodestroysomeofthecommonstereotypes (suchas thatallbeautifulyoungblack women are whores),but her "heroine"does succumbto otherstereotypes.By too and racism,Petry's strongly focusingherattentionon "thestreet"and on exploitation authorialcommentsneglectto pointto sexismas a majornegativeforce.WhenLutie, neartheend ofthenovel,killstheblackbandleaderwho triesto rapeher,Petrygives herthoughts: A lifetimeof pent-up resentmentwent into the blows ...

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she was ventingherrage againstthedirty,crowdedstreet.... now,shewas striking Finally,and theblowswereheavier,faster, at the whiteworldwhichthrustblackpeople intoa walled enclosure fromwhich there was no escape ....

(266)

In thefinalparagraphsofthebook, when Lutie sitsin thetrainforChicago,having lefther son behind,she triesto "figureout by whattwistsand turnsoffateshe had landed on thistrain.Her mindbalkedat thattask.All she could thinkwas, Itwas that street.It was thatgod-damnedstreet"(270). Byemploying"thestreet"in hernovelas setting,as physicaland socialcause,and, at the same time,as symbolic spaceintowhichshe projectsall her heroine'stroubles 334

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CALLALOO and suffering, Petryclearlyprovidesonlya partialexplanationof the destructionof cultureand communityin Harlem,of the social and psychologicaldisastershe deHerversionofa social,environmental scribesand suggestsso effectively. determinism oftheghetto thatcondensesthelivesofblacksin Harlemintothepsychologicaleffects or on herindividualfictional the characters, virtually represses, suspends, imaginative of the symbolicspace of the streetin the ghettothatRudolph Fisherhad potential powerfullyused in his shortstories.Petry'snarrativestrategy,however,lays bare anotherdimensionof symbolicspace in theblack ghettonovel. She uses the apartment,the apartmenthouse, and the streetin orderto explore,in a complexweb of of"space" in thecity imagesand metaphors,thesymbolicand communalsignificance a from a black woman's What be public space to blackmen (ghetto) perspective. may forthe enactmentof theirmale collectiveritualsof "streetculture"and "ghettolifespace" inwhich styles,"toblackwomenlookslikeanotherprison,an "ever-narrowing theycannotdevelopand communicatetheirindividualand collectiveidentities.Their "living-space"contractsintotheirapartmentswheretheyare literally"walled in." It is therefore thatMrs. Hedges, one of the charactersin the novel who insignificant dicates "forces"and "models" alternativeto Lutie Johnson'scourageousbut futile dreamand fight(MarjoriePryse),sitsat thewindow ofherapartment,continuously observingorsupervising"thestreet,"mediatingbetweenthe"walled-in"worldofthe (see Pryse123ff.). apartmenthouse and lifeoutsideand remnantsofcommunity and If,then,Petry'sdilemmain dramatizingthetensionsbetweensocial structure and different communitasin TheStreet asks fornew literary symboliccodes, strategies her novel also radicallyposes the questionof whethertherewas any meaningand strengthleftat all in blackwriters'cherishedand stubborndreamof Harlemas the ofblackurbancultureand community. place and incorporation

HarlemIs Nowhere:the dreambecome nightmare"the unrealityof Negrolife" (Ralph Ellison) WhereasLangstonHughes's "poem on contemporary Harlem,"his Montageofa DreamDeferred of ("writtenin themannerofthejam session,"a poeticdramatization the "musicof a communityin transition"),drew its strengthand the sustenanceof its,or his, dreamto a considerabledegreefromthelivingpower ofblackurbanfolk blackmusicand modernjazz, RalphEllison,in his essay "Harlem culture,traditional is Nowhere" (1948),providesthe outrightrejection,the negationof the "dream"of In thisessay,Ellisonverymuchemphasizes Harlem,itsmusic,and its"community." the "pathology"of ghettolifeas a resultof whiteoppressionand exploitationand does not see in blackfolkculturea viable sourceofresistance(Harlemas the "scene ofthefolk-Negro's deathagony[as well as] thesettingofhis transcendence"), which is a positioncloserto theworksofE. FranklinFrazierand RichardWrightthanto his own reviewofMyrdal'sAn American Dilemmawrittena fewyearsbefore(Shadowand Act303-17).To Ellison,aftertheriotsof 1935and 1943,Hughes's "dreamdeferred" has degeneratedto a surrealnightmare is all too real: which,unfortunately, 335

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C ALLALOO UU Harlemis a ruin-many of its ordinaryaspects (its crimes,its casual violence,itscrumbling buildingswithlitteredarea-ways, halls and vermin-infested rooms)are indistinguishill-smelling able fromthe distortedimages thatappear in dreams.... Yet thisis no dreambut therealityofwell overfourhundredthousand Americans;a realitywhichformanydefinesand colorsthe and economically, world.Overcrowdedand exploitedpolitically Harlemis thescene and symboloftheNegro's perpetualalienationin theland ofhis birth.(295-96) As the"sceneandsymbol" ofthe"unreality ofNegrolife,"as theresultofthedevastating of the "urban slum conditions" on (myemphases) on the "folksensibilities," impact the legacyof a "body of folklore"and a "relativelystableorder,"Harlem offersits inhabitantslittlemorethantheactingout of "surrealfantasies,"such as empty"rituals" of identifying withthe "success of Negro celebrities,"the "disintegration" of " and in and the of 'slum-shocked' church, family pathology "personalitydamage" institutions." Ghettoblacks,"caughtin a process of chaoticchange,"have lost any in their"desperatesearchforan identity." orientation Unfortunately, theyhave made in even worse the "folk wisdom" the mistaken notionthatitin things by discarding no way applies to urbanliving: Even his art is transformed; the lyricalritualelementsof folk jazz-that artisticprojectionof the onlyreal individuality possible forhim in the South, thatembodimentof a superiordemocracyin whicheach individualcultivatedhis uniquenessand yet did not clash with his neighbors-have given way to the of bebop a further technicalvirtuosity near-themeless triumph oftechnologyoverhumanism.(ShadowandAct300) boththe dissolutionof traditionalblackfolkcultureand community, By registering and the"absurdity"ofurbandreamsand rituals,and by dismissingbebop, Ellisonis visionofHarlem."One 'is' literally, butone is nowhere;one leftwitha totallynegative wanders dazed in a ghettomaze, a 'displaced person' of Americandemocracy." Whereasblackwritersof the HarlemRenaissancecould imagineand communicate versionsand visionsofa blackurbanculturaland communalidentityby creatinglitworlds,suspendingeverydayrealityin dreams,in communalrituals, eraryalternative in symbolicspaces, forEllisonall theseachievementsand strategieshave come to an becomesurreal,displaced.The utopian"dreamdeferred"of end,have been reversed, Harlemhas become"utopian"in theliteralsense: "no place," "nowhere."To Ellison, the world of imagination, of the dream,has turnedintothe realityofpure offantasy, whichthewritercan no longer"suspend" or "transcend"in a positiveway. negativity IfEllisonfindsconfirmation ofthe"sense ofunrealitythathauntsHarlem,"of"the mind confusedof who seek reality,"in thecommonreplyin Harlemto thegreeting, as an ex"How are you?," "Oh, man, I'm nowhere," he misreadsthe "folk-saying" of the which is itself an creative of responseofurban expression pression pathology folkcultureto its environment.Ellison'sbrilliantlateressays and his novel Invisible Man (1952)show that"Harlemis Nowhere"was nothis finalword aboutHarlem,or about thefunctionsofthefolkculture,"reality,"and thepower oftheliterary imag336

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in Harlemthatdoes notalso ination.He realizesthattherecannotbe a socialstructure make possible, or produce,the experiencesof communitasand new (or renewed) Man reaffirms theimportanceofblack symbolicspaces and communalrituals.Invisible folkloreforsurvival,a richsourceof strengththathelps theprotagonistto standup to thetestsofblackaccommodationism, whitecapitalism,racism,and ofall thewhite and black prophetsand movementsclaiminghistory,a black nation,or the many masksofthetrickster. Ellisonreconstructs theHarlemofthe 1930s,nottheHarlemof WorldWar II and the post-waryears. The storyis told by a narratorwho lives unbelow"and fromits border, its margin, and who finds derground,sees Harlem "from theanswerto his quest in an oldrecordingofLouis Armstrong. Thatis, Ellisonrecona visionofblackcultureand identityfroma distanceand froma historical stitutes peron thesocialprecondition and thecommunalpotentialofthetraspective.He reflects ditionalmotifsand strategiesin black urban literatureby focusingthe reader's in the"Prologue"and "Epilogue,"bothon thedifficulties ofwriting and on attention, theresponsibility whichthenarrator feelstoend hishibernation and fulfill (orexplore) his socialrole. Many yearslater,at the end of the hot summerof 1966,Ellisonelaboratedhis reofa Harlemthathad newed,thoughstillcritical,sense ofthecultureand community even moreturnedintoa slum,in a hearingwhichincludedSenatorsRibicoff, Kenand and his the cultural of Javits. nedy, Explicitly qualifying analysis "psychological crisis"of Harlemin his essay "HarlemIs Nowhere,"he emphaticallycelebratesthe "metamorphoses"ofblackfolkloreand the"sense oftheworld"and ofbeingan "individual"whichtheyhelpblackstoachieveinHarlem("Harlem'sAmerica"28f.).And he summarizeshis generalunderstanding in Harlemwith ofcultureand community thesesentences: It is a misunderstanding to assume thatNegroeswant to break out ofHarlem.Theywantto transform Harlem,theHarlemsof theircountry.These places are preciousto them.These places are where theyhave dreamed,where theyhave lived, where theyhave loved,wheretheyhave workedoutlifeas theycould. ... A slumlikeHarlemisn'tjusta place ofdecay.Itis also a form ofhistoricaland socialmemory.("Harlem'sAmerica"26)

The Archaeologyof Absurdity:StreetCulture, the Surrealityof "Community,"and theDeconstructionof the Urban"Hardboiled" DetectiveNovel (ChesterHimes) It is this"formof social and historicalmemory"thatwe findin ChesterHimes's Harlemdetectivenovels. Himes is thefirstblackwriterdiscussedwho grewup in a largecity(Cleveland,Ohio) and spenthis formative yearsin a blackghetto.9He had to pay his price:eightyearsin the Ohio StatePenitentiary forarmedrobbery(from 1928to 1936),duringwhichhe began to writeshortstories.His novels of the 1940s and 1950swere social and politicalnovels,mostlyautobiographical and naturalistic, 337

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CALLALOO orinterracial ottheghettoofthemind,ofintergenerational conflict. Afterhavinglived in Harlemforfiveor six years,Himes leftforFrancein 1953and laterreturnedonly forshortvisits.His nine Harlemdetectivenovels,writtenbetween 1957and 1969, thephysical,social, opened up toHimesa newfreedomin describingand dramatizing and culturaltopographyand iconographyofHarlemfromthe1940sto the1960s.The novels combinethe views and impressionsof the insiderwiththe perspectiveof a distantobserverwho carefullyreconstructs the dynamicsof a complexand contrain HometoHarlemvis-a-visthe reminiscent of Claude McKay'sefforts dictoryHarlem, different Harlemoftheearly1920s. TheHarlemdetectivenovelspresenta comprehensive pictureofHarlemas physical and social environment, a pictureof virtuallydocumentaryquality.Many passages renderthe scene, the atmosphere,the sounds, the smellsin sensuous details,but alwaysevokedand interpreted accordingto theirdirectimpacton thepeople ofHarlem. Even at past twoin themorning,"The Valley,"thatflatlowland of Harlem east of SeventhAvenue,was like the fryingpan of hell. Heat was comingout ofthepavement,bubblingfromthe asphalt; and the atmosphericpressurewas pushingit back to earthlikethelid on a pan. Coloredpeople werecookingin their overcrowded,overpricedtenements;cookingin the streets,in theafternoon joints,in thebrothels;seasoned withvice,disease and crime.An effluvium ofhotstinksarose fromthefrying pan and hunginthehotmotionlessair,no higherthantherooftopsthesmellofsizzlingbarbecue,friedhair,exhaustfumes,rotting garbage,cheapperfumes,unwashedbodies,decayedbuildings, offal,whiskeyand vomit,and all the dried-up dog-rat-and-cat odors of poverty.(TheHeat'sOn 25; see also ForLoveofImabelle 111; TheCrazyKill71; BlindMan 80-81) butmostofall These passages providethesettingfora worldfulloflifeand activity, ofviolenceand frustration: a worldpeopled byall kindsofcharacters includingfreaks and perverts,but all facingthe same problemof survival;a worldofa ghettowhere "harshcontradictions" are theessence of "reality."As Himes put itat thebeginning ofhis "filmscenario"BabySister(1961): Thisis Harlem,U.S.A., a cityofcontradictions. A cityofNegroes isolatedin thecenterofNew YorkCity.A cityofincrediblepovertyand huge sums ofcash. A cityofthemeekand theviolent. A cityofbrothels,barsand churches.... The inhabitants ofthis violatedand viorestricted, community, exploited,prostituted, lent,timidand vicious,livingin theirrat-ridden, hotbox,stinkingflats,are eitherthehungrywolves themselves,or are strugglingdesperatelyto save themselvesfromthe hungrywolves. (Blackon Black11) ButHimes does notuse his "documentation"ofthis"cityofcontradiction" in order to rendera naturalistic of the instead dramatizes Harlem as the he ghetto; picture of black in in the Harlem white America "Harlem" 46(see symbolicspace experience 338

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"The Harlemofmybooks was 52). As he put it,equivocally,in My LifeofAbsurdity: nevermeantto be real; I nevercalled it real; I just wanted to takeit away fromthe whiteman ifonlyin mybooks" (126). Himes adopts thepatternsofthe "hardboiled detectivenovel" of Chandlerand Hammett,the paradigmaticformulaof the 1930s novelofthechaos and corruption in thelargecity(Cawelti),butadapts itto his own Himes's two more or less blackdepurposes. nondescriptbut toughHarlem-grown tectives,GraveDiggerJonesand CoffinEd Johnson,are in an even moreambivalent positionthanPhilipMarlowe,since theyhave to enforcethe (white)law in Harlem and, at the same time,tryto help theirpeople. As Himes pointsout in an interview withJohnA. Williams,forblacks the "detectivestoryform"seems to be the most naturalformfor"narrating"theirexperience,as it is the Americanexperiencepar excellence,violenceas a "publicway oflife"(Williams,"MyMan Himes"49). Itis this "publiclife"ofviolencein HarlemwhichHimes dramatizesin his novelsand which definesGraveDigger'sand CoffinEd's radiusofactionand theirethic.Theytryhard to discovertherealcriminalsand makethemconfess,oftenbybrutalmethodsoutside thelaw,buttheydo notgettheofficial supporttheyneed. Theyare incorruptible, try topreventtheworstcrimesagainstthehelplessand show a socialconsciousness.But will not change and theyknow thattheirefforts theyare no social revolutionaries, In as are modernurban some Nelson out, ways, they anything. Raymond pointed versionsofthe "bad niggers"oftraditional blackfolkculture(Nelson 266-67)which providesthemwithsome resourcesthey-and Himes-can draw on in theirunderstandingoftheirtask. to boththeblackfolk Himes's Harlemdetectivenovelsare saturatedwithreferences and contemporary tradition blackurbanstreet culture.Blues and jazz permeatethestructureand theatmosphereofthenovels. In ForLoveofImabelle (1957),quotationsfrom blues keep recurring, and Jackson,Imabelle'sdesperatelover,acquiresthe qualities ofa bluesman.In TheRealCoolKillers(1959),GraveDigger,enteringthe Dew Drop Inn, experiencesthe sensual power and the communalritualof black music and dancing: Thejukeboxwas givingoutwitha stompversionof"Big-Legged Woman." Saxophones were pleading;the hornswere teasing; the bass was patting;the drumswere chatting;the piano was cutting,layingand playingthejive, and a huskyfemalevoice was shouting: "... You can feelmythigh Butdon't you feelup high." Happy-tailwomen were bouncingout of theirdresses on the highbar stools.(60) Himeshimselfonce mentioned,in an interviewwithMichelFabre,thatin hiswriting ofjazz" (Fabre29; he had triedto come as closelyas possibleto the "improvisations see Himes,My Life158). In his novelsfolksongs, streetrhymes,blackhumor,street (religlegal orillegal,oftheghettocommunity language,and thecollectiveactivities, ion, the numbers,gambling,narcotics)abound. Himes places thempreciselyin his fictionalworld and avoids any nostalgicsentimentality by always presentingthem 339

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CALLALOO froma distance,oftenin the brokenlightof ironyor humor(sometimesof a very macabresort). Thus byimmersing his detectivesin theworldoftheblackfolktraditionand urban folkculture,Himes recreatesa dimensionin the black urban experiencewhichhis of"incrediblepovertyand ofHarlemas "a cityofcontradictions," devastatingportrait had to blockfromview.But sums of an seemed of cash," huge all-pervasiveviolence, ifwe followthesequenceofhisnovels,thisimmersion inblackculturemoreand more turnsintoa recapturingof the past, of the historyof Harlem,of the visions of the HarlemRenaissance,ofa viableblackculturethathas lostitscommunalmeaningand formative power in the urban"jungle" of the 1960s,in a timeof ghetto"riots"and blackpower.Harlemhas becomeless and less accessibletoanycoherentinterpretation and literary The detectivesknowhow muchlifein Harlemis theresult representation. and ofthe "Syndicate,"but theycannottakecontrolof ofthewhitepower structure thislifein theghetto.The novelsdescribehow themechanismofexploitation works, but GraveDiggerand CoffinEd realizethattheycannotreallydo anythingabout it. As everybodyin someway is a victimofoppression,ofalienation,ofaggression,and has to strugglehardin orderto surviveat all, itbecomesincreasingly impossiblefor thedetectivesto "solve" thecase theyare on, to reconstruct the "logic"or "motives" ofcrimes,to clarify therelationshipofthecharactersto each other.As theindividual and responsibility, characters have losttheirmoralidentity crimesseem tohappenby accident,and itis oftenhopeless to findany "reason" or "motive"behindthem. and In thelastnovels,whichare setin the 1960s,violence,bothin thecommunity withthedetectives,becomesmoreand morepervasiveand anarchistic.As blackdetectives,GraveDiggerand CoffinEd faildismally,becomegrotesquefiguresin a chaoticworldofviolence,senselessmurders,and riotstheyneitherunderstandnorcontrol:"They looked liketwo idiotsstandingin the glareof theblazingcar,one in his coat,shirtand tie,and purpleshortsabove garteredsox and big feetand theotherin shirtsleevesand emptyshoulderholsterwithhis pistolstuckin his belt" (BlindMan 177;see also 124). As Himes pointsout in his powerfulessay "Harlemou le cancerde l'Amerique" (1963),Harlemhas lost its uniquenessand creativeresources,includingjazz. It has deteriorated intomerelyone slumand ghettoamong others.The relicshe stillfinds ofa betterpast have turnedintovain nostalgicillusions(47, 51, 73ff.).In thesecond volumeofhis autobiography, Himes definesblacklifein theurbanghettoas one of absurdity."AlbertCamus oncesaid thatracismis absurd.Racismintroducesabsurdity intothehumancondition.Not onlydoes racismexpresstheabsurdityoftheracists, butitgeneratesabsurdityin thevictims.And theabsurdityofthevictimsintensifies blacklifein the ghetto theabsurdityoftheracists,ad infinitum" (1). Byinterpreting as "absurd,"Himeswantsto movebeyondthe"protestnovel": "We weremorethan just victims.We did not suffer,we were extroverts.We were unique individuals. ... We were absurd."Or, "My lifewas absurd,but itwas free . ." (36, 144). Butto mostHarlemitesin his novels ofthe 1960s,this"freedom"musthave seemed to be morean abstract"existential"philosophythana lived experience.In his lastHarlem novel,BlindMan Witha Pistol(1969),Himes's detectivesreflect:

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Down here[indowntownManhattan]thepeople weredifferent fromthepeople in Harlem.Even thesoul brothers.Theylooked more lost. People in Harlem seem to have some purpose, whethergood or bad. But the people down here seemed to be wanderingaroundin a daze, lost,withoutknowingwherethey were or wheretheywere going.Movingin slow motion.Dirty and indifferent. Uncaringand unwashed. Rejectingreality,rejectinglife."ThismakesHarlemlooklikea statefair,"GraveDiggersaid. (167) But Himes seems to be at a loss to show wherein this"purpose" consists,or might as Harlem is a no communal where theblackcitizensenacttheir consist, longer space commonritualsand can expresstheirculturalidentity,but only the siteof lives of absurditythatcannotbe experiencedor dramatizedas "meaningful." Himes's last Harlemnovelsdeconstruct thegenreofthe detectivenovel: thedetectivesdo notsolve the case; it is lost in a maze of frustration, meaninglessviolence, and absurdity.The variousplotsdo not interconnect but breakoffsomewhere,and thedetectivesbecomeincreasingly "decentered"as themaincharactersofthenovel and are moreand moreabsorbedby the generalchaos. The novels deconstructthe genreas the paradigmaticurbannovelof the 1930sand 1940sby explodingthe communalpotentialoftheurbanghettoas symbolicspace and also theformofthenovel itselfintoa surrealmelangethatseems to suspend the veryquest formeaningand communication. Earlyin CottonComestoHarlem(1965),LieutenantAndersonreadsto GraveDiggerand CoffinEd the reportsof theviolentcrimescommittedduringthe day in theirHarlemprecinct,horribleactsofviolencethatwere "caused" bythemost trivialincidentsand resistanyeffort ofexplanation,offindinga "reason,"adabsurdum: "woman stabsman in stomachfourteentimes,no reasongiven"(19). The detectives "understand"theSouthernmigrantswho had fledto Harlemto finda betterlife,but had "not founda home in America,"and who now investall theirmoneyand hope in the Back-to-Africa-scheme led by blackex-convictDeke O'Hara turnedReverend Deke O'Malley: "Everyonehas tobelievein something"(34f.).Buttheyknowthatthe "believers"are onlyonce morebeingcheatedand the"movement"ofblackcollective solidarityis just anothercriminalscheme. The surreality of Harlemin BlindMan Witha Pistol(1969) does not lie in Ellison's becometrue"("HarlemIs Nowhere"),in thepressingrealityofpsychic "nightmares and distortionsby the environmentof the ghetto,since these "perdisintegration versions"stillreferback, ex negative, to the standardof a meaningfulreality.In this novel,the communalritualshave dissolvedintomeaninglessacts ofindividualand ofpublicviolence,and the symbolicspace of the streethas turnedintothe scenario forriotsthatseem to be as fortuitous as inevitable.In thefirst"riot"in thebook, on Nat TurnerDay, threedifferent protestmarchesclash on the cornerof 125thStreet and SeventhAvenue,ralliesof the BlackJesus,Brotherly Love, and "BlackPower" groups,describedas fraudsthatexploitfutilecollectivedreams.Itis a self-destructive ritualthat,however,helps to dramatizethe social structure of the ghettoin a white racistsociety.

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Fromwhere theysat, the riotinglooked like a rehearsalfora modernballet.The youthswould surgesuddenlyfromthedark tenementdoorways,alleyways,frombehind parked cars and basementstairways,chargetowardsthe police, throwrotten vegetables .... 'It's firsta game to them,'CoffinEd said. 'No, it ain't,'GraveDiggercontradicted, 'They'remakinga statement.' (170-71) Buta littlelater,afterthearrivalofthewhitepolice,the "mob" is pure "spectacle,"a perversetelevisionshow: "Itwas a riotscene in Harlem.Butno one was rioting.The onlymovementwas of people tryingto get beforethe cameras,get on television" and they (189). GraveDiggerand CoffinEd have becomemoreoutspokenpolitically, criticizetheracistprejudicesand therepressionby thesystemwhen theirwhitelieutenantasks themwho startedtheriot: "Some folkscall himby one name, some another,"CoffinEd said. "Some callhimlackofrespectforlaw and order,some lackof some the teachingsof the Bible,some the sins of opportunity, theirfathers,"GraveDiggerexpounded. "Some call him ignorance,somepoverty,somerebellion.Me and Ed lookathimwith compassion.We'revictims." "Victimsofwhat?"Andersonasked foolishly. "Victimsof yourskin,"CoffinEd shoutedbrutally,his own withpassion .... patchworkofgraftedblackskintwitching "And one factis thefirstthingcoloredpeople do in all these disturbancesof the peace, is loot," Grave Diggersaid. "There mustbe some reasonforthelootingotherthanlocal instigation, because ithappens everywhere, and everytime."(192-93) Himes is not,however,contentwithenvironmental the pathologyor determinism, victimization or of the other of the riot. If "the thesis, any "explanations" riotinglooked likeda rehearsalfora modernballet,"the detectivesrealizethatthe Harlemyouths are making"a statement"even thoughtheydon't know yet"what's thatstatement say." To CoffinEd, it is the expressionof a "racialferment"ofa "new generationof coloredyouth"he cannotunderstand:"What made themriotand tauntthe white police on one hand, and compose poetryand dreamscomplexenough to throwa Harvardintellectualon theother?"To GraveDigger,itis theoutcomeofa realbelief in thepromiseofan equalitythe"whiterulers"have notyetgranted(170f.,212f.).In Cotton ComestoHarlem,Himeshad suggestedthatin the"angry"new jazz ofthe1960s can be hearda new "emotional"languageofa collectiveblackexperience,but it is a languagehis two detectivescannot,or dare not,read. Then thetwo saxes startedswappingfourswiththerhythm always in theback. "Somewherein thatjungle is the solutionto theworld,"CoffinEd said, "Ifwe could onlyfindit." "Yeah, it's like the sidewalkstryingto speak in a language neverheard. Buttheycan't spell it,either." "Naw," CoffinEd said. "Unless there'san alphabetforemotion." 342

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"The emotionthatcomes out ofexperience.Ifwe could read thatlanguage,man,we could solve all thecrimesin theworld." "Let's split,"CoffinEd said. "Jazztalkstoo muchto me." "Itain'tso muchwhatitsays,"GraveDiggeragreed."It'swhat you can'tdo about it." (45-46) BlindMan Witha Pistolreaffirms "the hot eccentricmodernrhythmby the angryfacedmusicians"at theFiveSpot (178ff.;see also 164). These passages mightindicate a growingpoliticalawarenessand a new potentialforcommunalaction,such as that against"UrbanRenewal"neartheend ofBlindMan Witha Pistol.ButHimes does not offerin his lastHarlemnovelanyprogramor anynew symbolicmodes forthedramatizationof communitasin theurbanblackghetto.He indicateshis respectforMalcolm X and forthe workthe BlackMuslimshave been doing in the Harlemghetto (140,214ff.),buthe does notendorsetheirpoliticsin his novel.In a shortstoryofthe late 1960s,"Prediction,"and the novel he workedon afterBlindMan Witha Pistol, called Plan B, he emphasizedthe necessityof black collectiveorganized violence,in contradistinction to the"unorganizedviolence"he condemnedin his prefaceto Blind Man Witha Pistol:a condemnationthatalso includes,I think,theincreasingly arbitrary and the sometimesalmost"fascist"attitudesofhis two detectives(see 117; brutality also Milliken236f.).Himes did notfinishPlan B. BlindMan Witha Pistolendswitha second"riot,"thecause ofwhichcanbe identified thistime-but thiscause "explains"nothing.It is a surrealfantasyof a blind man "aimlessly"shootingin thecrowd,theallegoryofa worldofabsurditythatdefiesany experienceor visionofmeaningand community. An hourlaterLieutenantAndersonhad GraveDiggeron the radio-phone."Can't you men stop thatriot?"he demanded. "It's out ofhand, boss," GraveDiggersaid. "All right,I'll call forreinforcements. Whatstartedit?" "A blindman witha pistol." "What'sthat?" "You heardme, boss." "That don't make any sense." "Sure don't." (218)

Works Cited Anderson,Jervis.This WasHarlem,1900-1950.New York,1982. Barksdale,RichardK. LangstonHughes:ThePoetand His Critics.Chicago, 1977. Road. New York, 1932. Brown,Sterling.Southern Cooper, Wayne,ed. ThePassionofClaudeMcKay:SelectedProseand Poetry,1912-1948.New York,1972. Cullen, Countee. Color.New York,1925. Davis, ArthurP. "The Harlem of Langston Hughes' Poetry."Phylon8 (1952): 276-83. Deutsch, Leonard J." 'The StreetsofHarlem': The ShortStoriesofRudolph Fisher."Phylon40 (1979): 159-71. Drake, St. Clair and Horace R. Cayton. BlackMetropolis.2 vols. New York, 1945. Ellison, Ralph. InvisibleMan. New York, 1952. ." 'Ralph Ellison' (Harlem's America)." TheNew Leader49 (Sept. 26, 1966): 22-35. . Shadowand Act. New York,1964.

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CALLALOO Fabre, Michel. "Les Jazzmende ChesterHimes." JazzMagazine27 (Jan. 1979): 28, 29, 60. Fisher,Rudolph. "Blades of Steel." AtlanticMonthly140 (Aug. 1927): 183-92. . "The Cityof Refuge." AtlanticMonthly135 (Feb. 1925): 178-87. . "The Promised Land." AtlanticMonthly139 (Jan. 1927): 37-45. . "The South LingersOn." Survey53 (Mar. 1925): 644-47. . The WallsofJericho. New York,1928. Haskins, Jim.The CottonClub: A Pictorialand SocialHistoryoftheMost FamousSymboloftheJazzEra. New York,1977. Henderson, Stephen E. "The Heavy Blues of SterlingBrown: A Study of Craftand Tradition."Black AmericanLiterature Forum14 (Spring 1980): 32-44. Himes, Chester. Blackon Black.New York,1973. . BlindMan witha Pistol.New York,1969. Repr. as Hot Day, Hot Night.Dell Books, 1970. . CottonComestoHarlem.New York, 1965. Repr. Dell Books, 1970. . TheCrazyKill. New York, 1959. Repr. BerkleyBooks, 1966. . ForLoveofImabelle.Greenwich,1957. Repr. Signet,1974. . "Harlem ou le cancer de l'Amerique." PresenceAfricaine 45 (ler Trimestre1963): 46-81. . TheHeat's On. New York,1966. Repr. Dell Books, 1967. . My LifeofAbsurdity: TheAutobiography, Vol. 2. New York, 1976. . TheReal Cool Killers.New York,1959. Repr. Signet,1969. Huggins, Nathan I. HarlemRenaissance.New York,1972. , ed. VoicesfromtheHarlemRenaissance.New York,1976. Hughes, Langston. Ask YourMama. New York, 1961. . "Down Under in Harlem." New Republic110 (Mar. 27, 1944): 404-05. . FieldsofWonder.New York,1947. . FineClothestotheJew.New York, 1927. . TheLangstonHughesReader.New York, 1958. . Montageofa DreamDeferred. New York, 1951. . "The Negro Artistand the Racial Mountain." TheNation122 (June23, 1926): 692-94. . A New Song.New York,1938. . One WayTicket.New York, 1949. Limited.New York,1932. . Scottsboro . SelectedPoems.New York, 1959. in Harlem.New York, 1942. . Shakespeare _ The Weary Blues.New York,1926. Ivy,JamesW. "Ann PetryTalks About FirstNovel." Crisis53 (Feb. 1946): 48-49. Man. New York,1912. Repr. 1927. Johnson,JamesWeldon. TheAutobiography ofan Ex-Colored . BlackManhattan.New York, 1930. 5 (Mar. 1927): 84-85. Larkin,Margaret."A Poet forthe People-A Review." Opportunity Lenz, Ginter H. "Gettoerfahrung,Gettokultur,Gettoliteratur:Zur afroamerikanischenLiteratur zwischen den Weltkriegen(1914-1945)." Amerikanische Ed. BerndtOstendorf.DarmGettoliteratur. stadt,1982. 149-233. . "Urban Ghetto,SymbolicSpace, and Communal Rituals:Zur LiterarischenVerarbeitungHarlems in der Harlem Renaissance." Das Verstehenlernen einerparadoxenEpochein SchuleundHochschule: TheAmerican1920s. Ed. LotharBredella. Bochum, 1985. 78-113. Lewis, David Levering. WhenHarlemwas in Vogue.New York,1981. Locke, Alain. "Harlem: Dark Weather-Vane."SurveyGraphic25 (1936): 457-62, 493-95. , ed. TheNew Negro.New York,1925. McKay, Claude. Banjo. New York,1929. _ . "Desolate." 4 (Nov. 1926): 338. Opportunity . Harlem:NegroMetropolis.New York, 1940. . HarlemShadows.New York,1922. . HometoHarlem.New York,1928. _ . "Note of Harlem." Modern Monthly8 (July1934): 368. . SelectedPoems.New York,1953. ."SignificantBooks Reviewed By Their Authors: Claude McKay, Home to Harlem." New McClure'sMagazine40 (June1928): 81. . "Song of New York." New Masses 1 (May 1926): 15. Milliken,Stephen F. ChesterHimes:A CriticalAppraisal.Columbia, Missouri, 1976. Nelson, Raymond. "Domestic Harlem: The Detective Fictionof Chester Himes." VirginiaQuarterly Review48 (Spring 1972): 260-76.

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CALLALOO Ann.TheStreet. New York,1946.Repr.Pyramid, 1961,1976. Petry, " 'Patterns inAnnPetry'sTheStreet." ConPryse,Marjorie. againsttheSky':Deismand Motherhood andLiterary BlackWomen, Fiction Tradition. Ed. Marjorie J.Spillers.Bloomjuring: PryseandHortense ington:IndianaUP, 1985.116-31. theVeil:A Study Narrative. Urbana:U ofIllinoisP, 1979. Stepto,RobertB. FromBehind ofAfro-American LittleBlueBookNo. 494.Girard,Kansas,n.d. Wallace.NegroLifeinNewYork's Harlem. Thurman, Toomer, Jean.Cane.New York,1923. Victor."Actingin Everyday inReview 1. CamLifeand Everyday LifeinActing."Humanities Turner, bridge,1982.83-105. FieldsandMetaphors: Action inHumanSociety. Dramas, Ithaca,New York,1974. Symbolic . "Frame,Flow,and Reflection: Ritualand Dramaas PublicLiminality." inPostPerformance modern Culture. Ed. MichelBenamouand CharlesCaramello.Madison,1977.33-55. . FromRitualtoTheatre: TheHumanSeriousness ofPlay.New York,1982. . "Liminalto Liminoid, in Play,Flowand Ritual:An Essayin Comparative Rice Symbology." Studies 60 (1974):53-92. University . "Process,Systemand Symbol:A New Anthropological Daedalus106(1977):61Synthesis." 80. . TheRitualProcess:Structure and Antistructure. Ithaca, New York,1969.

Ed. W. J.Mitchell.Chicago,1981. "SocialDramasand StoriesaboutThem."On Narrative. 137-64. desEtats-Unis. Paris,1963. Jean.LesPoetesNegres Wagner, 1. Ed. JohnA. Williamsand CharlesF. Harris.New Williams, JohnA. "MyMan Himes."Amistad York,1970.25-91. Thomas.SevenPoetsinSearch New York,1944.41-52. Yoseloff, ofanAnswer. BatonRouge,Louisiana,1973. Young,JamesO. BlackWriters oftheThirties. __

Notes 1. For a brilliantuse of Turner's "ritual topography"in an interpretativehistoryof Afro-American narrativeas a literaryform,see Stepto. 2. See also the detailed study of the historicaldevelopment of Afro-Americanghetto experience, culture,and literaturefromWorldWarI to theend ofWorldWar II, and ofthe systematicproblems involved, in Lenz, "Gettoerfahrung."The best book on the Harlem Renaissance stillis Huggins's HarlemRenaissance. 3. For an interpretation ofToomer's Cane,includingthe story"Theater" mentionedbelow, see Lenz, "Urban Ghetto" 92-94, 99-101. 4. Brown's "blues poems" are discussed in an excellentway in Henderson. See also Lenz, "Urban Ghetto"95-96, 102-3. 5. For a general discussion of Hughes's blues and jazz poetry,see Wagnerand Barksdale. 6. Lewis 211. The historicalrole and development of "cabarets" in Harlem since 1900 are discussed in Lewis 28-30, 105-6, 208-11, and Anderson 72-74, 128-29, 133, 168-78,235-36. See also Johnson and McKay, HometoHarlem28-29, 296, 314, 316, 319-21. 7. See Deutsch. A contemporary,popular "picture"of"Negro Lifein New York'sHarlem" by another black writeris Thurman(circa 1927). 8. The intellectualand literarydevelopmentsamong black writersand social and politicalscientists duringthe 1930s are analyzed in Young. 9. Himes's lifeand work are the subject matterof an excellentbook by Milliken.

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