The goal of this essay is to look at the poems “The Weary Blues” and “JAZZTETMUTED” (hereafter to be referred to as “JAZZTET”) by Langston Hughes andexamine their relationships to both the blues and jazz structurally, lyrically, andthematically. I examine the relationship of blues and jazz to the African-Americancommunity of Harlem, New York in the 1920’s and the 1950’s when the poems wererespectively published. Integral to any understanding of what Hughes sought toaccomplish by associating his poetry so closely with these music styles are the contexts,socially and politically, in which they are produced, particularly with respect to theAfrican-American experience.I will examine Hughes’ understanding of not only the sound of the two stylesof music but of what the music represents in the context of African-American historyand how he combines these to effectively communicate blues and jazz to the page. / <p>A</p>

1 Abstract This MA thesis discusses contemporary US literature in Czechoslovakia between 1948 and 1956 in order to see how the US was represented through the chosen American writers and their works. The first two chapters look at how the parallel canon was established, both from historical and theoretical perspective. The third chapter discusses Langston Hughes as the representative of American poetry. It shows how Hughes was used to draw attention to racial inequality in the US. Howard Fast as the superstar of the "Czechoslovak America" is the focus of the fourth chapter. The cases of both Fast and Hughes show that contemporary US authors published in Czechoslovakia at that time were chosen for the way they depicted the US racial and social inequality and the repression of political opposition, and identified themselves as members of the so called progressive America. Reading Hughes and Fast from the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain contributes to Czech scholarship on the 1950s and adds new perspectives to the contemporary reconsiderations of American leftist writers.

Abstract: From Harlem to Central Asia: Langston Hughes exploration of Class, Race and Gender under the Soviet Union. This essay explores Langston Hughes journey to Soviet Central Asia, where he aimed to gain insights into the lives of people of “color” under the Soviet Union. Focusing on a book by Hughes this essay analyzes his portrayal of both colonial and post-revolutionary Central Asia.Through the lens of postcolonial theory and an intersectional approach, the study draws connections between African American and Central Asian societies during times of transition. It delves into the intricate dynamics of ethnicity, class, gender, and politics that surface in Hughes depiction of the region. Ultimately, the study seeks to deepen our understanding of the complex intersections between race, gender, ethnicity, and politics in Central Asia during and pre the Soviet era, while highlighting the long-term effects of colonialism on post-slavery African American society and post-colonial Central Asia.

Ma thèse de doctorat, In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry, étudie la façon dont les poètes afro-américains des années 1960 et 1970, Langston Hughes, David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez, et Amiri Baraka, emploient le jazz afin d’ancrer leur poésie dans la tradition de performance. Ce faisant, chacun de ces poètes démontre comment la culture noire, en conceptualisant à travers la performance des modes de résistance, fût utilisée par les peuples de descendance africaine pour contrer le racisme institutionnalisé et les discours discriminatoires. Donc, pour les fins de cette thèse, je me concentre sur quatre poètes engagés dans des dialogues poétiques avec la musicologie, l’esthétique, et la politique afro-américaines des années 1960 et 1970. Ces poètes affirment la centralité de la performativité littéraire noire afin d’assurer la survie et la continuité de la mémoire culturelle collective des afro-américains. De plus, mon argument est que la théorisation de l’art afro-américain comme engagement politique devient un élément central à l’élaboration d’une esthétique noire basée sur la performance. Ma thèse de doctorat propose donc une analyse originale des ces quatre poètes qui infusent leur poèmes avec des références au jazz et à la politique dans le but de rééduquer les générations des années 2000 en ce qui concerne leur mémoire collective. / My doctoral dissertation, In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry studies the ways in which African American poets of the 1960s and 1970s, Langston Hughes, David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka employ jazz in order to ground their poetry in the tradition of performance. In so doing, each poet illustrates how black expressive culture, by conceptualizing through performance modes of resistance, has historically been used by people of African descent to challenge institutionalized racism and discriminatory discourses. Therefore, for the purpose of this dissertation, I focus on four poets who engage in dialogues with and about black musicology, aesthetics, and politics of the 1960s and 1970s; they assert the centrality of literary rendition for the survival and continuance of the collective cultural memory of Black Americans. In turn, I suggest that their theorization of artistry as political engagement becomes a central element in the construction of a Black Aesthetic based on performance. In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry thus proposes an original analysis of how the four poets infused jazz and political references in their poetics in order to re-educate later generations about a collective black memory.

Ma thèse de doctorat, In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry, étudie la façon dont les poètes afro-américains des années 1960 et 1970, Langston Hughes, David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez, et Amiri Baraka, emploient le jazz afin d’ancrer leur poésie dans la tradition de performance. Ce faisant, chacun de ces poètes démontre comment la culture noire, en conceptualisant à travers la performance des modes de résistance, fût utilisée par les peuples de descendance africaine pour contrer le racisme institutionnalisé et les discours discriminatoires. Donc, pour les fins de cette thèse, je me concentre sur quatre poètes engagés dans des dialogues poétiques avec la musicologie, l’esthétique, et la politique afro-américaines des années 1960 et 1970. Ces poètes affirment la centralité de la performativité littéraire noire afin d’assurer la survie et la continuité de la mémoire culturelle collective des afro-américains. De plus, mon argument est que la théorisation de l’art afro-américain comme engagement politique devient un élément central à l’élaboration d’une esthétique noire basée sur la performance. Ma thèse de doctorat propose donc une analyse originale des ces quatre poètes qui infusent leur poèmes avec des références au jazz et à la politique dans le but de rééduquer les générations des années 2000 en ce qui concerne leur mémoire collective. / My doctoral dissertation, In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry studies the ways in which African American poets of the 1960s and 1970s, Langston Hughes, David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka employ jazz in order to ground their poetry in the tradition of performance. In so doing, each poet illustrates how black expressive culture, by conceptualizing through performance modes of resistance, has historically been used by people of African descent to challenge institutionalized racism and discriminatory discourses. Therefore, for the purpose of this dissertation, I focus on four poets who engage in dialogues with and about black musicology, aesthetics, and politics of the 1960s and 1970s; they assert the centrality of literary rendition for the survival and continuance of the collective cultural memory of Black Americans. In turn, I suggest that their theorization of artistry as political engagement becomes a central element in the construction of a Black Aesthetic based on performance. In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry thus proposes an original analysis of how the four poets infused jazz and political references in their poetics in order to re-educate later generations about a collective black memory.

It is my belief that theatre is the telling of stories, and that playwrighting is the creation of those stories. Regardless of the underlying motives (to make the audience think, to make them feel, to offend them or to draw them in,) the core of the theatre world is the storyline. Some critics write of the importance of audience effect and audience reception; after all, a performance can only be so named if at least one person is there to witness it. So much of audience effect is based the storyline itself - that structure of which is created by the power characters have over others. Theatre generalists learn of Aristotle's well-made play structure. Playwrights quickly learn to distinguish between protagonists and antagonists. Actors are routinely taught physicalizations of creating "status" onstage. A plotline is driven by the power that people, circumstances, and even fate exercise over protagonists. Most audience members naturally sympathize with the underdog or victim in a given storyline, and so the submissive or oppressed character becomes (largely) the most integral. By what process, then, is this sense of oppression created in a play? How can oppression/victimization be analyzed with regard to character development? With emerging criticism suggesting that the concept of character is dying, what portrayals of victim have we seen in the late 20th century? What framework can we use to fully understand this complex concept? What are we to see in the future, and how will the concept evolve? In my attempt to answer these questions, I first analyze the definition of "victim" and what categories of victimization exist - the victim of a crime, for example, or the victim of psychological oppression. "Victim" is a word with an extraordinarily complex definition, and so for the purposes of this study, I focus entirely on social victimization - that is, oppression or harm inflicted on a character by their peers or society. I focus on three major elements of this sort of victimization: harm inflicted on a character by another (not by their own actions), harm inflicted despite struggle or protest, and a power or authority endowed on the victimizer by the victim. After defining these elements, I analyze the literary methods by which playwrights can represent or create victimization - blurred lines of authority, expressive text, and the creation of emotion through visual and auditory means. Once the concept of victim is defined and a framework established for viewing it in the theatre, I analyze the victimization of one of American theatre's most famous sufferers - Eugene O'Neill's Yank in The Hairy Ape. To best contextualize this character, I explore the theories of theatre in this time period - reflections of social struggles, the concept of hierarchy, and clearly drawn class lines. I also position The Hairy Ape in its immediate historical and theoretical time period, to understand if O'Neill created a reflection on or of his contemporaries. Finally, I look at the concept of victim through the nonrealistic and nonlinear plays of the 20th century - how it has changed, evolved, or even (as Eleanor Fuchs may suggest) died. I found that my previously established framework for "making victim" has change dramatically to apply to contemporary nonlinear theatre pieces. Through this study, I have found that the lines of victimization and authority are as blurred today in nonrealistic and nonlinear theatre as they were in the seemingly "black and white" dramas of the 1920s and 30s. In my research, I have found the very beginnings of an extraordinarily complex definition of "victim".

<i> History Will Be My Judge: A Cultural Examination of America's Racial Tensions Presented Through the Symbolization of Booker T. Washington</i> is an interdisciplinary study about the emergence of Booker T. Washington as a black cultural hero. By the turn of the twentieth century, Washington had become the most prominent African American educator, economic reformer, entrepreneur, and race leader in the United States. He is most recognized as the founder of Tuskegee Institute (now University) and his highly acclaimed autobiography, <i>Up From Slavery</i>, which recounts his life growing up enslaved to becoming an international icon. Since his death in 1915, several monuments, memorials, landmarks, and commemorative tributes have been established in his honor. During the 1940s, Washington became the first African American pictured on the United States postage stamp and minted silver half-dollar. Additionally, he was spotlighted in a series of media campaigns called "Famous American Firsts," and was the first African American inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. Moreover, amidst the presidential transition between Barack Obama and Donald Trump, black popular media has alluded to Washington's economic philosophy through music videos, documentaries, and television programs. I argue that each of these posthumous commemorations belong to larger social justice movements, namely, the Civil Rights movement and Black Lives Matter movement. Throughout these eras, Washington's legacy has served to counter white supremacy and symbolize the rise of integration, the black middle class, economic justice, black self-made, black education, and the legacy of slavery.<div> The purpose of this study is to examine how during periods of racial unrest, African Americans leverage Booker T. Washington's image to counter racist stereotypes and reaffirm black citizenship. The primary framework applied in this study is William L. Van Deburg's theory of the <i>black cultural hero. </i>Two emergent theories from this research are my developing frameworks called <i>Black Hustle Theory</i> and <i>nostalgic tension</i>. Using literary and visual analysis, I assess historical archives from popular press, black literature, American memorabilia, and black popular culture to examine Washington's commemorative legacy through a black radical lens. Specifically, I explore how the following four people have connected Washington's legacy to the Civil Rights movement and Black Lives Matter movement: Major Richard Robert Wright, Sr., founder of Savannah State University; Langston Hughes, famed Harlem Renaissance poet and author; Stanley Nelson, award-winning producer; and, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, singer and pop mogul. I put Washington's legacy in conversation with each of these cultural producers to simulate a call-and-response between his lifework and the generations after him.<br><div><br></div></div>

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