In the second half and at the end of the 20th century, African American literature revisited some topics that are classic in the African American literary tradition, and also discovered new issues related to the changed status of African Americans in US society at the end of the century. In the 1960s, the Black Aesthetics Theory and the Black Arts Movement emerged in the wake of political protests for African American rights. Figures of this movement urged that art be devoted exclusively to the problems of the African American community and limited only to them, disregarding so-called “universal” issues: “Where the writers of another generation were persuaded to seek “universal” subjects and themes, the new black writers are deliberately delving into their own folk culture and tradition” (Morrison 96). The African American writers of the 1960s did not fundamentally try to join the “mainstream” of US literature. Their main source of inspiration was the life of Negro neighborhoods. The focus of the works also changed: for the most part, they were intended for the same African Americans as their creators themselves.
The subject of the past has always attracted African American writers. In the last quarter of the 20th century, there was a reassessment of values about the past, and a new view of historical events of the era of slavery was being formed. The period of slavery became one of the most interesting in the history of African Americans for their authors. It was carefully studied, along with its consequences, which had a significant influence on the formation of the self-consciousness of African Americans (Eversley 62). Knowledge of the past is an important condition for understanding the present. It helps to determine what drives the actions of people in the modern world, as well as to comprehend the prospects for the development of the African American diaspora in the future. A large number of novels published after 1975 are dedicated to the events of the 18-19 centuries. They include Chaneysville Incident (1981) by David Bradley, Oxherding Tale (1982) and Middle Passage (1990) by Charles Johnson, and Mama Day (1988), and Dessa Rose (1986) by Shirley Ann Williams. All these works are about the fate of African Americans and their trials on the American continent.
Turning back to the past is also about reaching out to the deeper roots of African Americans. That is why, since the early 1970s, many writers have had a special interest in Africa, its inhabitants, and its traditions. Africa seems to be both a lost paradise and a historical homeland, a distant, mysterious land. On the other hand, Africa seems to be a wildland inhabited by people who are alien to modern civilization. It takes much effort to understand these people. However, African Americans are attracted to Africa, and they draw inspiration from it (Cooke 54). The African continent is home to some of the late-century novels by African-American writers such as Alice Walker’s Apocalypse and Charles Johnson’s On the Road to America. In addition, African American authors often refer to African rituals and beliefs, that is, to African folklore.
Moreover, African American writers of the late 20th century paid special attention to African American musical forms. According to the principles of blues and jazz, they created not only poetic works, as Langston Hughes did, but also prosaic ones. Probably one of the reasons that African-American authors sought to combine the artistic word with a musical form was their interest in the experiments of the modernists of the beginning of the century. For example, Virginia Woolf, much appreciated by Toni Morrison, wrote some of her novels guided by the principles of constructing a piece of music. African American writers have continued this tradition, with Gloria Naylor’s Cafe Bailey and Toni Morrison’s Jazz and Beloved both based on African American traditional music genres.
Another trend in African American literature in the last quarter of the 20th century is the emergence of a large number of women writers. If earlier African American women writers were on the periphery of the literary process, then at the end of the 20th century they successfully claimed leading roles in literature. In their books, they discuss problems that had previously been secondary in African American literature: motherhood, the relationship between mothers and daughters, and women’s friendship (Cooke 58). A woman’s knowledge of her “Self” is the main theme of the works of many African American writers. Women are the main characters in all of Gloria Naylor’s novels such as The Women of Brewster Place, Cafe Bailey, Mama Day, and Linden Hills. The African American woman, in the minds of Black writers in the United States of the late 20th century, is the basis of the “black” community, the guardian of its foundations and traditions (Friedel 70). She is the continuation of the family; she raises and educates children, instilling in them the ideas in which her mother raised her. It is a woman who transfers the knowledge accumulated by her ancestors to subsequent generations.
Undoubtedly, at the end of the 20th century, African American literature was on the rise. Writers were finding increasingly more new approaches to disclosing the topics that most excited the modern reader. At the same time, African American authors today constantly turn to tradition, revising and rethinking everything that their predecessors created. This helps in shaping the identity of the representatives of the African diaspora in the world. African American literature presents experiences from an African American perspective.
The identity of Africans is closely related to the concept of diaspora. The structure of Western societies that receive migrants from Africa becomes more complex, and the very concept of diaspora takes on new meanings for Africans on a regional and global scale. Diaspora acts as a developing factor in the “survival strategy,” which makes it possible to leave Africa and settle in a new place, but the diaspora can also restrict individuals, limiting their interaction to the same circle and making it difficult to integrate into the host society (Azevedo 19). However, the literary legacy of the civil rights era and the years that followed is conducive to broadening the horizons and understanding the unity of the African community.
Music also influences diasporic identity and a sense of unity. African music has integrated into the global music space and is successfully built into world trends – it does not ignore them, but it also does not assimilate in them. For example, afrobeat represents a new unique phenomenon in music. It emerged at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, being a synthesis of highlife and fuji (Nigerian music evolved from Muslim morning “faith” songs) with funk, jazz, and rock (Allen and Veal 11). Afrobeat was not only popular far beyond the borders of Africa but also had a great influence on European and American musicians.
In the light of the study of the identity of immigrants from Africa, exploration of African literature is becoming relevant. In particular, Brenda Cooper’s work on a new generation of African writers can be noted. The author of the book examines in detail the work of five contemporary publicists of African descent who have lived outside Africa for a long time in the US or Europe. They are Leila Aboulela and Jamal Mahjoub from Sudan, Nigerian writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Biyi Bandele, and Moses Isegawa from Uganda (Cooper 40, 62-64). The fact of studying and staying for a long time in a completely different cultural and linguistic environment did not weaken their creative potential but it helped them to better understand their African identity. The English language made it possible for them to join the world literature, even with the assumption that not all of the specifics of the African mentality and culture can be fully conveyed using this language.
The dilemma of the “double consciousness” of African-Americans, first identified in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, remains relevant to this day. The descendants of slaves, who have been on the periphery of American society for centuries, have experienced an internal conflict due to the presence of “African” and “American” components of identity (Falola 27). Many Africans in the diaspora are confident that they should and can take the most active part in the fate of their native country. Diaspora representatives raise the issue of using the knowledge and capabilities of their representatives for the development of the social sphere in African countries. In particular, it concerns medical services and the education system. In addition, attention is drawn to the need for the diaspora to participate in political processes in their homeland to establish a lasting peace there, and to form civil society and a democratic state (Falola 29). Such beliefs are formed largely due to the knowledge of the diaspora with African-American literature of the period of Black people’s victory in the struggle for civil rights and the development of their citizenship in subsequent years.
Works Cited
Allen, Tony, and Michael E. Veal. Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat. Duke University Press Books, 2013.
Azevedo, Mario. Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora. Carolina Academic Press, 2017.
Cooke, Michael. Afro – American Literature in the Twentieth Century. Yale University Press, 2009.
Cooper, Brenda. A New Generation of African Writers: Migration, Material Culture and Language. BOYE6, 2013.
Eversley, Shelly. The Real Negro: The Question of Authenticity in Twentieth-Century African American Literature. Routledge, 2004.
Falola, Toyin. Redefining the African Diaspora: Expressive Cultures and Politics from Slavery to Independence. Cambria Press, 2019.
Friedel, Tania. Racial Discourse and Cosmopolitanism in Twentieth-Century African American Writing. Routledge.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Penguin Books, 1988.