アメリカ人とは誰か : Jean Toomerのアメリカ人宣言を読む

概要

論文の詳細を見る
Though his most renowned work, Cane (1923), won accolades from and brought much recognition to writers and critics of the incipient Harlem Renaissance, Jean Toomer never identified himself as a "Negro" writer. Rather, his various texts such as letters, essays, and autobiographies reveal that he wanted to be identified as an "American" writer. Toomer never denied his racial background. In fact, according to his explanation, he had "seven blood mixtures: French, Dutch, Welsh, Negro, German, Jewish, and Indian." Because of such racial background, his position in America was a curious one, and, from his point of view, he was "naturally and inevitably an American." As a literary modernist, Toomer tried to create a new hybrid America through his texts. He realized that "the modern world" was "uprooted," and "breaking down," but they "couldn't go back." For such reason, "the creation of a human world" was his task and he must be "a builder of the world." Although he knew that his ideal was "not only untypical of the America of today, it is untypical of the human world today," he believed that "which is untypical of the human world of today will be characteristic of the human world tomorrow." By showing his ideal hybrid America through his texts, Toomer tried not only to make the future of America brighter but also to be identified to be an ideal American in such a hybrid society.
東北大学の論文
2001-12-20