Globalizing the Harlem Renaissance: Irish, Mexican, and ‘Negro’ renaissances in The Survey, 1919–1929

This essay situates the Harlem Renaissance in a world-historical context by building on the global perspective offered by the architect of that renaissance, Alain Locke. It demonstrates that contemporaries like Locke saw the Harlem Renaissance to be a local episode in a broader phenomenon of racial...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of global history Vol. 1; no. 2; pp. 155 - 175
Main Author Johnson, Bob
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.07.2006
Subjects
Colonialism
Cultural factors
Historical analysis
Ireland
Mexico
Nation building
Pluralism
Race
Social movements
U.S.A
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Summary:This essay situates the Harlem Renaissance in a world-historical context by building on the global perspective offered by the architect of that renaissance, Alain Locke. It demonstrates that contemporaries like Locke saw the Harlem Renaissance to be a local episode in a broader phenomenon of racial and national renaissance that included post-war developments in Ireland and Mexico. The core argument is that American progressives found in these renaissances three distinct models for defining the proper relationship between race and nation: in the Irish case, a racially homogeneous nation-state premised on a repudiation of the colonizer and his culture; in the Mexican case, a syncretic nation-state based on the cultural and biological fusion of the colonizer and colonized; and in the Harlem case, a pluralist nationstate that held in balance otherwise relatively autonomous races.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
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ISSN:1740-0228
1740-0236
DOI:10.1017/S1740022806000118