In the second half of the 20th century the African-American population managed to pave the way for a proper self-representation after a long period of actual non-representation of non-whiteness, which contradicts the topos of the crazy quilt of humanity (c.f. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man).
Before that time many Caucasians refused to recognise the African culture as it didn't harmonise with the Eurocentric philosophy. From the point of the white master narrative the literary efforts of black people can not be seen as literature as they originate from an „uncultured“ society and are therefore declared to be unauthentic and unaesthetic. Nevertheless the Afro-American literati did not remain silent. Expressing their anger and seeking for self-representation they described their memories in their autobiographies, which envolved to the so called slave narratives – a genuine literary genre combining the Euro-American culture of writing with the African oral cultures. In order to facilitate the communication amongst African slaves of different linguistic backgrounds, the literati acquired the English language and adapted it to their linguistic …show more content…
But in the following decades the black authors increased their resistance, attributing the African ethos a higher importance in the literary publications and releasing socio-critical stories about the misery resulting from racial segregation, which were partly construed as hate literature.
A recurring motif in African-American literature is the image of the tragic mulatto – an archetypical mixed-race person, who fails to completely fit in the white world or the black world, revealing the inner disunity of the
Before that time many Caucasians refused to recognise the African culture as it didn't harmonise with the Eurocentric philosophy. From the point of the white master narrative the literary efforts of black people can not be seen as literature as they originate from an „uncultured“ society and are therefore declared to be unauthentic and unaesthetic. Nevertheless the Afro-American literati did not remain silent. Expressing their anger and seeking for self-representation they described their memories in their autobiographies, which envolved to the so called slave narratives – a genuine literary genre combining the Euro-American culture of writing with the African oral cultures. In order to facilitate the communication amongst African slaves of different linguistic backgrounds, the literati acquired the English language and adapted it to their linguistic …show more content…
But in the following decades the black authors increased their resistance, attributing the African ethos a higher importance in the literary publications and releasing socio-critical stories about the misery resulting from racial segregation, which were partly construed as hate literature.
A recurring motif in African-American literature is the image of the tragic mulatto – an archetypical mixed-race person, who fails to completely fit in the white world or the black world, revealing the inner disunity of the