Jean Toomer 18941967

1
Jean Toomer (1894-1967)

• The encounter with rural African-American culture
  was the inspiration for most of the writers
• Cane (1923)
• Three parts that unify the northern and southern
  African-American experiences

2
Canes Structure

• The first part 6 vignettes of southern women and
  12 poems
• The language lyrical, mystical, and sensuous
  underlining the doubleness of black Southern life
  
• The conflicts, pressures and the spiritual and
  moral beauty

3
Canes Structure

• The second part a kaleidoscopic recounting of
  the death of black spirituality in a wasteland of
  urban materialism and technology
• The final section a drama, the spiritual search
  of a black northerner for identity in the land of
  his ancestors, in the South

4
Canes Contribution

• Highly praised upon publication
• The revelation of the intrinsic beauty in black
  American culture in the face of white oppression

5
Canes Contribution

• A break-through in the canon of writing
• The use of different genres opened up the avenue
  of experiments and innovations
• After the publication of Cane Toomer continued
  his literary experiments in the field of drama,
  where he worked with expressionist techniques
  till 1929

6
Toomers Dilemma

• Embittered by the persistence of racial prejudice
  he stopped writing and claimed an American
  identity
• Many have accused him of denying his ethnic
  heritage
• For him that was the way to claim a
  multi-cultural identity and not a racial one