history of african american theatre - part i

8/2/2019 History of African American Theatre - Part I

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History of AfricanAmerican Theatre

J. Pruder

From:

PART I


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Antebellum Literature

Slave NarrativesFrom 1830 to the end of the slaveryera, the fugitive slave narrativedominated the literary landscape of

antebellum black America.

The Narrative of the Life of FrederickDouglass, an American Slave,Written by Himself(1845) gained the

most attention.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl(1861) by Harriet Jacobs, was thefirst autobiography by a formerlyenslaved African American woman.


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Prose, Drama, & PoetryIt was through the slavenarrative that African Americansentered the world of literature.

In 1853 William Wells Brown, aninternationally known fugitiveslave narrator, authored the firstblack American novel.

Five years later Brown alsopublished the first AfricanAmerican play, The Escape; or,A Leap for Freedom


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Prose, Drama, & Poetry

The first fictional work byan African American

woman appeared in 1859was The Two Offers, ashort story by FrancesEllen Watkins Harper.


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Oral TraditionAfrican American literature really began with oral stories.

These were a way to pass down stories.

The trickster character (such as Brer Rabbit) werepopular at this time.

This was because of their ability to conquer strongerantagonists through wit and guile.

Music was also used as a form of communication.


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The Late 19th and Early20th CenturiesMost writing was done by

middle class AfricanAmericans.

They sought to combine theproper style and sentimentaltone of much popular Americanliterature to a real-world

sociopolitical agenda thatallowed African Americanwriters to argue the case forracial justice to an increasinglyindifferent white audience.


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Harlem Reniassance

Represented the flowering in literatureand art of the New Negro movement ofthe 1920s

The New Negro (1925) was ananthology that featured the early work ofsome of the most gifted HarlemRenaissance writers.


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Harlem Renaissance

The New Negro, Locke announced,differed from the Old Negro inassertiveness and self-confidence,

which led New Negro writers to questiontraditional white aesthetic standards, toeschew parochialism and propaganda,and to cultivate personal self-

expression, racial pride, and literaryexperimentation.


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Urban Realism

Despite the enormous outpouring ofcreativity during the 1920s, the vogue ofblack writing, black art, and black culture

waned markedly in the early 1930s asthe Great Depression took hold in theUnited States.

African American pundits in the 1930sand '40s tended to depreciate theachievements of the New Negroes,calling instead for a more politically

engaged, socially critical realism inliterature.


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e r o o ernAfrican American

Theatre During the decade followingWorld War II, professionalAfrican American dramatists

found greater access to thewhite American theatre thanany previous generation ofblack playwrights had

known.


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A Raisin in the Sun

No one in AfricanAmerican theatre couldhave predicted the huge

critical and popularsuccess that came toChicago-native LorraineHansberry.

Hansberry is known forher playA Raisin in theSun.

This play dealt with family


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A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun introducednot only the most brilliantplaywright yet produced by

black America but also anextraordinarily talented cast ofAfrican American performers.

Actors included Sidney Poitier,

Ruby Dee, and Lou Gossett, Jr.

The play's director, LloydRichards, was the first blackdirector of a Broadway show inmore than 50 years.


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history of african american theatre - part i

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