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LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967) - Coggle Diagram
LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)
LIFE
James Mercer Langston Hughes
known as poet but used many literary forms
correspondent for the
Baltimore Afro-American
during the Spanish Civil War
born in Joplin, Missouri, he lived his childhood in Kansas with his mother, who taught him art, poetry and theatre, and his grandmother, who told him the stories about
the days of slavery
at school. he kept 2 notebooks: for serious poems and for jingles and light verse
he worked on a farm, job that made him feel close to Walt Whitman (he was reading
Leaves of Grass
)
he went to sea to Africa, then lived in Paris and worked as a cook and waiter, then back in the USA working as a busboy (clearing away dishes), when he met the poet Vachel Lindsay that introduced him to the American public as a poet
He graduated at Lincoln University in 1929
he contributed to the Harlem renaissance and founded the Harlem Suitcase theatre
4 years before his death, he wrote about his funeral service: held in a Harlem funeral house instead of a church accompanied by a jazz band
WORKS
1940
The Big sea
autobiography - 1st volume
1952
Laughing to keep from crying
short-story
1956
I wonder as I wander
autobiography - 2nd volume
1935
Mulatto
playwright
1962
Black nativity
lyrics for dramatic musicals
1930
Not without laughter
novel
1934
The ways of white folks
short-story
10 children books
radio and tv scripts, songs
1926
The weary blues
first poems collection
1927
Fine clothes to the Jew
second collection
1942
Shakespeare in Harlem
his best collection of poems
WHITMAN'S INFLUENCE
share the common man's experience
non traditional poetry
free choice of subjects
matters unsuitable for poetry
faith in the AMERICAN DREAM
they both spoke through a mask, A COLLECTIVE 'I'
recognised in the poem
Old Walt
MUSIC
he organised readings with jazz accompaniment
music as affirmation to the beauty of life, from slavery to freedom
regarded the jazz structure established by Louis Armstrong as
a paradigm of the black experience
TEXTS
I, too, sing America
example of Afro-American consciousness
I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen [...] Tomorrow, I'll be at the table [...] They'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed. I, too, am America
The Negro speaks of rivers
the poet looks to ancient civilisations to find an answer to the question of the Afro-American's identity
II've known rivers ancient as the world [...] My sould has grown deep like the rivers