The Black American Short Story in the 20th Century

by Peter Bruck

  ledged, muc h les s appreciated . Instead , h e wa s either unnotice d a s

  a write r o f shor t fictio n o r wrongl y denounce d a s bein g "wedde d

  to th e concep t o f assimilatio n a t a tim e whe n suc h a concep t ha s

  ceased t o b e th e preoccupatio n o f th e blac k writer." 49

  The lac k o f critica l attentio n t o Ellison' s an d Wright' s symbol -

  istic shor t fictio n wa s parallelle d b y th e extraordinar y impac t o f

  Native Son, whic h se t th e themati c scop e o f blac k writin g for ove r

  a decade . Henc e Jame s Baldwin' s attempt s t o defin e himsel f i n

  opposition t o Wright' s protes t novel ; henc e als o hi s apparen t lac k

  of knowledg e o f th e symbolisti c shor t fictio n o f th e 1940's , whe n

  he published hi s first stor y "Previou s Condition" i n 1948 .

  IV

  James Baldwin , i n hi s well-know n essa y "Man y Thousand s Gone "

  (1951), attacke d Wright' s Native Son, which , in hi s eyes, conveye d

  the ide a tha t "ther e exist s n o tradition , n o fiel d o f manners , n o

  possibility o f ritua l i n Negr o life." 50 Thi s rebuk e implies , i n part ,

  the positio n adopte d b y Baldwi n i n hi s shor t fiction , whic h seek s

  to illuminat e th e influenc e o f th e pas t o n th e formatio n o f blac k

  identity. Henc e hi s concer n wit h th e them e o f th e ques t fo r

  identity, whic h i s alway s linke d t o th e proble m o f ho w t o over -

  come th e historica l pas t o f th e blacks. 51 Th e preoccupatio n wit h

  this theme , whic h run s a s a leitmoti v throug h mos t o f Baldwin' s

  writings, elucidate s hi s stanc e a s a blac k artist . A s h e remarked i n

  his "Autobiographica l Notes" :

  Social affairs are not generally speaking the writer's prime concern, whether

  they ough t to be or not; it is absolutely necessary that he establish between

  himself an d these affairs a distance which will allow, at least, for clarity, so

  that befor e h e ca n loo k forwar d i n an y meaningfu l sense , he mus t b e

  allowed t o tak e a long loo k back . I n th e contex t o f the Negro problem

  neither white s no r blacks , fo r excellen t reason s o f thei r own , have th e

  faintest desir e to look back; but I think that the past is all that makes the

  present coherent , an d further , tha t th e pas t wil l remai n horribl e fo r

  exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.

  12

  It follow s tha t hi s fictiona l exploration s o f th e pas t wer e no t onl y

  written fro m hi s ow n experience, 53 bu t als o "see k a white reader -

  ship whos e racia l ignorance h e wishes to correct." 54 In this respect,

  Baldwin stil l view s hi s rol e a s tha t o f a n interprete r o f blac k lif e

  to whit e readers .

  Fifteen year s afte r Baldwin' s attac k o n Native Son, anothe r

  black write r voice d importan t criticis m o f thi s novel. I n a piercing

  analysis, LeRo i Jone s charge d Wright' s protes t fictio n wit h no t

  having bee n abl e t o mov e "int o th e positio n wher e h e coul d pro -

  pose hi s symbols , erec t hi s ow n persona l myths , a s an y grea t

  literature must." 55 Jones ' criticis m read s i n man y way s lik e a

  prolegomenon t o th e ris e o f th e ne w blac k art s movements o f th e

  1960's. The emergenc e o f black cultural nationalism, the awakenin g

  of a ne w ethni c consciousness , th e establishmen t o f th e Writers '

  Workshop o f th e Organizatio n o f Black American Culture, together

  with newl y founde d blac k publishin g house s an d othe r cultura l

  media, signalle d th e arriva l o f important ne w outlet s an d activities .

  The literatur e growin g ou t o f th e "Blac k Renaissanc e o f th e

  sixties"56 turne d ou t t o b e th e revers e o f Wright' s prophecy , "a s

  the Negr o merge s int o th e mainstrea m o f America n life , ther e

  might resul t actuall y a disappearanc e o f Negr o literatur e a s

  such."57 I n contras t t o Wright' s beliefs , th e sixtie s sa w a grea t

  blossoming o f blac k literature , whic h — in th e word s o f Hoy t

  Fuller, edito r o f Black World — finally lef t th e real m o f protes t

  fiction an d becam e " a literatur e o f affirmation." 58 Programmati c

  formulations o f thi s ne w outloo k cate r t o a blac k audienc e wit h

  the intentio n o f reorderin g "th e wester n cultura l aesthetic. " Th e

  role o f th e racia l interpreter t o white s has been replace d b y tha t o f

  the teache r t o blacks . In th e word s o f Larr y Neal : "Blac k ar t i s th e

  aesthetic an d spiritua l siste r o f th e Blac k Powe r concept . A s such

  it envision s a n ar t tha t speak s directly t o the . needs and aspiration s

  of blac k America . .. . It proposes a separate symbolism , mythology ,

  critique, and iconology." 59

  So far , tw o differen t direction s o f th e ne w literatur e o f ethni c

  affirmation see m t o hav e emerged . Th e one , exemplifie d b y th e

  writings o f LeRo i Jones , explore s th e ques t fo r authenti c blac k

  identity. Unlik e Baldwin , Jone s trie s t o develo p a n ethni c con -

  sciousness tha t i s no longe r define d b y th e socio-cultura l standard s

  of th e white , muc h les s i n oppositio n t o it . Thi s tren d clearl y

  marks th e en d o f "doubl e consciousness; " th e write r i s n o longe r

  13

  preoccupied wit h th e fusio n o f his "divided audience" or with the

  preconceived notion s o f hi s white readership . Rather, hi s "rol e in

  America is to ai d i n the destruction of America as he knows it."60

  The othe r directio n o f th e contemporar y shor t stor y i s quit e

  different fro m th e politica l stanc e represente d b y Jones . Fo r

  example, th e shor t fiction o f Ernes t Gaine s an d Willia m Melvi n

  Kelley doe s no t tr y t o presen t solution s t o th e rac e problem . I n

  Kelley's own words,

  let me say for th e record that I am not a sociologist or a politician or a

  spokesman. Such people try to give answers. A writer, I think, should ask

  questions. H e should depic t people , no t symbol s o r idea s disguised as

  people.

  Now fo r th e first time , Zora Neal e Hurston's lamen t tha t "th e

  average, struggling , non-morbi d Negr o i s th e best-kep t secre t i n

  America" i s n o longe r valid . A s th e shor t fictio n o f Gaine s and

  Kelley demonstrates , th e blac k short story writer has finally extri -

  cated himsel f fro m thos e raciall y motivate d preconception s tha t

  used t o limi t hi s creative expression s t o th e prejudice s o f his pre-

  dominantly whit e audience . Henc e th e fusio n o f th e "divide d

  audience" seem s n o longer t o b e illusory. Whether thi s cours e o r

  the cultura l nationalis t stanc e o f LeRo i Jones , E d Bullin s an d

  others wil l se t i n motio n mor e impulse s an d produc e th e mor e

  promising fiction, remains to be seen. The two antagonistic stances,

  however, see m t o provide at least possible ways out of the "all but

  irreconcilable wa r betwee n hi s [th e blac k writer's ] socia l an d

  artistic responsibilities."

  The evolutio n o f th e blac k shor t stor y fro m Chesnut t an d

  Dunbar t o Jones , Kelley , an d Gaine s present s a paradigm
o f th e

  writer's changin g audience and the changing ideas of that audience.

  The blac k write r is no longer confined t o the role of an interpreter

  of a n ethni c constituenc y t o a n ignorant , racis t whit e audience ,

  nor limite d t o th e depiction of happy characters in the plantation-

  tradition o r angr y character s i n th e manne r o f th e protes t genre .

  For th e firs t tim e i n hi s history , h e seem s t o hav e gaine d th e

  privilege o f choosing , according t o hi s literary stance , between an

  ethnic-oriented blac k audienc e an d a racially unrestricte d doubl e

  audience.

  14

  v

  In th e prefac e t o th e shor t stor y anthology Cutting Edges (1973),

  editor Jac k Hick s ha s draw n attentio n t o th e fac t tha t "earlie r

  anthologies hav e slighted, howeve r unintentionally , th e talent s o f

  blacks an d Thir d Worl d artists." 62 Despit e a growing number o f

  black shor t stor y anthologie s i n recen t years , Hick's observatio n

  accurately reflect s th e lac k o f interes t i n th e blac k story . Peden' s

  prophecy o f 196 4 that "th e production o f a vital Negro American

  literature is likely to be one of the major directio n the short fiction

  of th e nex t decad e wil l take," 63 ha s turne d ou t t o b e fa r to o

  optimistic. A simila r reservatio n ha s t o b e extended t o hi s latest

  prophecy o f 1975 : "Storie s b y an d abou t America n black s ar e

  likely t o gro w both in number and quality ...' ,64 Althoug h Peden's

  remark "tha t th e write r o f shor t fictio n ha s graduall y emerge d

  from obscurit y ... . an d tha t mor e goo d volume s o f shor t fictio n

  get int o prin t [and ] increasingl y achiev e considerabl e popularit y

  or critica l recognition," 65 i s certainly correc t i n genera l terms , it

  does no t appl y t o th e blac k shor t story . A s the novelis t Joh n A .

  Williams admitte d i n 1975 : "Ther e i s a trend i n Ne w York, an d

  that tren d seem s t o indicat e tha t 'Harle m Renaissanc e II ' i s

  over."66 Stil l hardl y considere d i n majo r anthologies , th e shor t

  story as a genre has remained the Cinderella of black fiction .

  The blac k short story has also been widely neglected by modern

  critics. The remark o f Emanue l an d Gross in their anthology Dark

  Symphony (1968 ) i s stil l a s vali d toda y a s a decad e ago : "n o

  analytical criticis m ha s ye t defensibl y identifie d th e bes t shor t

  stories writte n b y Negroes." 67 Th e silenc e o f critic s i s i n itsel f

  significant. I t ma y b e partl y accounte d fo r b y th e emergenc e o f

  the 'blac k aesthetic, ' whic h ha s left a good man y critic s insecure

  and baffled , lik e Richar d Gilman, who has voluntarily suspende d

  all critical faculties.68 Th e need for a renewal of literary approaches

  to blac k literatur e ha s stil l no t ye t bee n met . I n keepin g wit h

  Abraham Chapman : "Wester n literar y criticis m ha s no t com e t o

  terms i n an y recognize d o r satisfactor y wa y wit h th e fa r mor e

  complex questio n o f ethni c writin g generally , particularl y th e

  historical communit y o f th e literatur e o f Afric a an d Blacks in the

  West."69 No r hav e th e attempt s o f various representatives o f th e

  'black aesthetic ' t o fil l thi s void produce d viabl e new approaches.

  For, i f "th e questio n fo r th e blac k criti c toda y is, " a s Addiso n

  15

  Gayle ha s asserted , "ho w fa r th e wor k ha s gone in transformin g a n

  American Negr o int o a n African-America n o r blac k man," 70 w e

  are lef t wonderin g wha t critica l methodolog y coul d possibl y fin d

  an answe r t o such a question .

  The onl y notabl e attemp t s o fa r t o fill thi s critica l voi d i s

  Robert Bone' s Down Home (1975) , whic h discusse s th e develop -

  ment o f th e blac k shor t stor y fro m it s beginning to th e end o f th e

  Harlem Renaissance . Unfortunately , thi s firs t full-lengt h stud y

  lacks a precis e critica l framewor k an d henc e doe s no t provid e a

  really fir m basi s fo r furthe r scholarl y criticis m o f thi s genre . Th e

  categories h e applies , pastora l vs . anti-pastoral, ar e so vague71 tha t

  they enabl e hi m t o presen t onl y a rathe r simplisti c view. A soun d

  framework fo r th e interpretatio n o f blac k shor t fictio n i s as much

  a desideratum toda y a s it eve r was.

  NOTES

  1. Jame s Baldwin , "Sermon s an d Blues " The New York Times Book

  Review (March 29, 1959), 6.

  2. Natha n Irvin g Huggins , The Harlem Renaissance (Ne w York , 1971) ,

  p. 195.

  3. W.E.B . DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York, 1961), pp. 16-17.

  4. Ralp h Ellison, Shadow & Act (London , 1967), p. 132.

  5. Richar d Wright, The Outsider (New York, 1965), p. 129.

  6. Bernhar d Ostendorf , "Blac k Poetry , Blues , an d Folklore : Doubl e Con-

  sciousness in Afro-American Ora l Culture," Amerikastudien, 20 (1975), 218.

  7. Jame s Weldon Johnson, "The Dilemma of the Negro Author," American

  Mercury, 15 (1928), 477.

  8. Mohamado u Kane, "The Africa n Write r and his Public," in G.D. Killam,

  ed., African Writers on African Writing (London, 1975), p. 55.

  9. Ibid .,p.60 ff .

  10. J . Saunder s Redding , "Th e Negr o Write r an d American Literature, " in

  Herbert Hill , ed., Anger, And Beyond: The Negro Writer in the United States

  (New York, 1968), p. 19.

  11. Ibid., p. 8.

  12. J . Saunder s Redding , "The Negro Author: Hi s Publisher, His Public and

  His Purse "Publisher's Weekly (March 24,1945), 1287.

  13. Johnson , "The Dilemma of the Negro Author," 479.

  16

  14. Sterling A. Brown , "Th e Negr o Autho r an d Hi s Publisher," Negro Quar-

  terly, 1- 4 (1942-43), reprint (Ne w York, 1969) , pp. 14-15.

  15. Zora Neal e Hurston, "Wha t Whit e Publisher s Won' t Print," Negro Digest

  (April, 1950) , 89.

  16. Se e Lucie n Goldmann , "Th e Sociolog y o f literature: statu s and problem s

  of method," International Social Science Journal, 1 9 (1967), 496.

  17. Fre d Lewi s Pattee , The Development of the American Short Story (Ne w

  York, 1923) , p. 337.

  18. Sterlin g A. Brown et al. , edd., The Negro Caravan (New York, rpt. 1969) ,

  p. 10 .

  19. Willia m Dea n Howells , "Pau l Laurenc e Dunbar, " The Bookman, 2 3

  (1906), 18 4 ff .

  20. Quote d i n Virgini a Cunningham , Paul Laurence Dunbar and His Song,

  (New York, rpt. 1969) , p. 219.

  21. Rober t Bone , Down Home: A History of Afro-American Short Fiction

  from its Beginning to the End of the Harlem Renaissance (Ne w York, 1975) ,

  p. 14 .

  22. Ibid., p.43.

  23. Se e Ja y Martin , ed. , A Singer in the Dawn: Reinterpretations of Paul

  Laurence Dunbar (Ne w York , 1975) . In his introduction Marti n discusses the

  hitherto unknown newspape r dispatche s of Dunbar and concludes that he was

  "one o f th e mos t powerful spokesma n aroun d the turn o f the century agains t

  the problem o f the color line." (p. 30)

  24. Bone , Down Home, p . 83.

  25. Quote d in Helen M. Chesnutt , Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the


  Color Line (Chape l Hill, 1952), p. 21.

  26. Se e William L . Andrews, "William Dean Howells and Charles W. Chesnutt :

  Criticism an d Rac e Fictio n i n th e Ag e o f Booke r T . Washington," American

  Literature, 4 8 (1976), 327-339.

  27. Quote d i n Rober t M. Farnsworth's introduction t o Charles W. Chestnutt,

  The Marrow of Tradition (An n Arbor, 1969) , p. xvi.

  28. W.E.B . DuBois , "Criteri a o f Negr o Art, " i n Danie l Walden, ed., W.E.B.

  DuBois: The Crisis Writings (New York, 1972) , p. 289.

  29. Langsto n Hughes , "Th e Negr o Artis t an d th e Racia l Mountain, " The

  Nation (Jul y 23 , 1926) , reprinte d i n Joh n A . Williams , ed. , Amistad 1:

  Writings on Black History and Culture (Ne w York, 1970) , p. 304.

  30. Margare t Perry , Silence to the Drums: A Survey of the Literature of the

  Harlem Renaissance (Westport, Conn., 1976) , p. 63.

  31. Johnson , "Th e Dilemm a o f th e Negr o Author, " 481 . See also Johnson's

  "Negro Autho r an d Whit e Publishers, " The Crisis, 36 (1929) , 228-229 ; his

  position is echoed by Redding , "The Negr o Author," 1288 .

  32. Cf . Charle s Scruggs , "'Al l Dresse d U p Bu t N o Plac e T o Go' : Th e Blac k

  Writer an d Hi s Audienc e Durin g th e Harle m Renaissance, " American Litera-

  17

  turet4S (1976), 551.

  33. Ibid., p. 553.

  33a. Cf. Charles Scruggs, "Jean Toomer : Fugitive, " American Literature, 47

  (1975/76), 84-96.

  34. Brown , The Negro Caravan, p. 12.

  35. Huggins , The Harlem Renaissance, p. 238.

  36. Donal d C. Dickinson, A Bio-Bibliography of Langston Hughes 1902-1967

  (Hamden, Conn., 1972), p. 75 ff.

  37. Ibid., p . 115 .

  38. Sterlin g A. Brown, "Negro Characters as Seen by White Authors," Journal

  of Negro Education, 2 (1933), 203.

  39. Sterlin g A . Brown , The Negro in American Fiction (Port Washington ,

  N.Y.,rpt. 1968), p. 106.

  40. Richar d Wright , "Blueprin t fo r Negr o Writing, " New Challenge (Fall ,

  1937), reprinte d i n Addiso n Gayle , ed., The Black Aesthetic (Garden City,

  1972), pp. 315-326.

  41. Se e Michel Fabre, The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright (New York,

  1973), p. 161 ff.

  42. Richar d Wright , "Ho w 'Bigger ' wa s Born, " i n Abraha m Chapman , ed.,