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Chapter 11 - Black Cultural (Inter)nationalism

Communism and African American Writing in the Great Depression

from Part IV - International, Black, and Radical Visions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2022

By
Nathaniel Mills
Edited by
Eve Dunbar  and
Ayesha K. Hardison
Eve Dunbar
Affiliation:
Vassar College, New York
Ayesha K. Hardison
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Summary

This chapter identifies the US Communist left as a major influence on African American writers and activists during the 1930s. Black writers who began their careers during the Depression era often sought to distinguish themselves from the Harlem Renaissance of the previous decade, and the Communist left furnished a political and literary discourse, as well as sustaining institutional support, that enabled Black writers to pioneer a distinctive practice of politics and art. The chapter analyzes the reasons why Black writers were drawn to the Communist movement, and outlines the Communist-backed organizations and causes that inspired African Americans in the decade. Through a reading of work by Richard Wright, Eugene Gordon, Margaret Walker, Theodore Ward, Ralph Ellison, and others, the chapter identifies the complex dialectic of Black cultural particularity and Marxist theory that distinguishes the literary output of 1930s African American writers on the left.

Keywords

African American literatureUS CommunismGreat DepressionBlack Belt Thesisprotest literature
Type
Chapter
Information
African American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 , pp. 321 - 348
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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