REJUVENATION THROUGH JOY: LANGSTON HUGHES, PRIMITIVISM, AND JAZZ. |
| Author: |
Chinitz, David
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| Date |
1/1/97
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Journal
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| Journal Title: |
American Literary History
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| Volume/Pages |
9(1)p.60-78
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| Subject Matter |
African American
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| Abstract |
Langston Hughes s 1934 story, Rejuvenation through Joy, expresses Hughes s mature critical assessment of primitivism, an artistic and social phenomenon of the 1920 s, one aspect ofwhich associated American blacks and jazz with a mystical African essence. Hughes s work in the 1920 s, such as The Weary Blues (1926), shows that he was an early devotee of the fad. In Rejuvenation through Joy, however, Hughes satirizes primitivism while retaining admiration for the truths about African-American life that it expressed in a distorted way. Portraying aracially ambiguous con man who soothes emotionally troubled whites with jazz music and dancing, the story expresses Hughes s conviction that, while American blacks had no mystical linkto Africa, African-American culture remained distinct from that of white Americans.
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