Open AccessThe Remaking of the Radical in the Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem
Author(s) -
Loredana Bercuci
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
revista canaria de estudios ingleses
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2530-8335
pISSN - 0211-5913
DOI - 10.25145/j.recaesin.2022.84.03
Subject(s) - harlem renaissance , race (biology) , african american , subject (documents) , art , class (philosophy) , gender studies , intersection (aeronautics) , art history , sociology , aesthetics , history , performance art , anthropology , philosophy , cartography , geography , computer science , epistemology , library science
Home to Harlem, one of the first successful African American novels, inspired from the urban lower classes’ life, produced both revulsion and fascination. W.E.B. Du Bois stated that Claude McKay had proved African Americans were “buffoons, thugs, and rotters anyway” (245). However, the novel was successful, pointing to a 1920s fascination with the lower classes. This article analyzes the intersection of race and class in Home to Harlem and shows that the novel proposes a composite model for a radical subject.