Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance by Houston A. Baker

Houston A. Baker is a well respected and very talented writer on the study of black literature and culture. His books are seen as pivotal in the canon for those exploring the integration and segregation of the African American throughout the twentieth century - however this book is beguiling in as much as it pays only a cursory glance to Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance is covered in even less detail. Instead Baker focuses on the voice of the African American in and around the 1920's and a study of dialect in literature from that time. Baker appears to be maligning a sense of self-concious reflecion and criticism of Afro-American literature from an Afro-American perspective instead of a Euro-American perspective. This acts a distraction throughout the book because through his focus on Euro-American cirticism we lose any sense of this throughout the study and leave not really knowing what an Afro-American citicism is.

Whilst this book doesn't do what it say's on the tin, what it does do is very informative and insiteful. Baker's indepth studies of such works as Du Bois' 'The Souls of Black Folk', Locke's 'The New Negro' and Washington's 'Up from Slavery' are particually useful in unpacking the argument that Baker is positing. In an attempt to try and include the Renaissance Baker finds himself spending brief periods of time on stage performances, music and poetry however these points seem to become ingulfed by his study of texts.

This book did not really satisfy me as it was through my interest of the Harlem Renaissance that I selected it for and I found it frustrating that that idea was being shyed away from somewhat throughout the study. I would much rather Baker had taken the time spent giving comparative insights between Afro-American writers and white writers such as Fitzgerald and Joyce and used them to write about the Renaissance in greater depth.