Analyse af noveller af Langston Hughes og Z.Z Pecker

ESSAY REGARDING TWO SHORT STORIES BY AFRICAN-AMERICAN WRITERS

During the African-American movement, ‘’The Harlem renaissance’’ in the 1920’s, Langston Hughes was one of the most important and influential writers. Hughes’ genius was heavily influenced by his own upbringing in New York City’s Harlem, a neighborhood primarily dominated by people of African-American heritage. By means of his poetry, plays and novels, Hughes portrayed his sense of racial pride. He described and celebrated black culture, humor and stereotypes through his many characters. Although more modern, the author born in 1973, Z.Z Pecker, has achieved much acclaim for her stories portraying African-Americans in an otherwise, primarily white-dominated world. The Seattle times wrote about Pecker that ‘’Z.Z is an African-American voice attuned to the ironies of race, and desperately (as well as humorously) trying to sort out truth from rhetoric in the long shadows cast by the glories of the Civil Rights Movements’’

The young black writers’ words about Langston Hughes presents him as a front figure, which urges others to do as, or follow him. Seemingly Hughes had a selflessness over him, as he is quoted saying ‘’ You never got from him, “I am THE Negro writer,” but only “I am a Negro writer” I think this could mean that he isn’t specifically the one and only author capable of writing and representing the African-American culture, but merely one of many. Hughes never saw himself as the only representative of the African-American community, but rather as a part of a stream, or movement This further leads back to the earlier paragraphs, he might have been an advocate for justice, equality, brotherhood and African-American culture, but all for the purpose of passing the ball on to the next generation. Hughes encouraged others to follow in his footsteps, only then could a change in perception happen. Through his craft, he used his stories and words to force a change in the world, but it didn’t have to be him, it could’ve been anybody. About Z.Z Pecker’s own stories, she says ‘’I am writing for black people, but I am also writing for whites, for Chinese, for Americans.” She hereby characterizes her own targeted audience as undefinable, her writings are for all people across races. What she means by this is up for interpretation, but it’s very possible that she doesn’t like to box people into different segments. Some of her stories might apply to some people from one race or one nationality, while other of her stories will resonate with people of different colour and race. It is impossible to really say that ‘’This is merely a black story’’ as that implies all people of that one race are the same and will be affected by the story. A story can lean towards an audience within a specific racial segment if it deals with themes, issues and characteristics commonly occurring within that one race, but it’ll still be a story for everyone to read and interpret in their own way. This is what I think Z.Z Pecker is trying to communicate when she says that she doesn’t write stories for ‘’black people’’.