Lecture 15 - Langston Hughes

The poetry of Langston Hughes is considered as a representation of the African-American experience. The distinctive concerns of Hughes's poetic project are juxtaposed with the works of other modernists, such as Pound, Eliot, Frost, and Stevens. Hughes's interest in and innovative use of musical forms, such as blues and jazz, is explored with particular attention to their role in African-American culture, as well as their use by Hughes to forge an alternative to dominant modes of expression within the modernist canon. **Reading assignment:** Langston Hughes: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "When Sue Wears Red," "The Weary Blues," "Suicide's Note," "Cross," "Lament over Love," "Po' Boy Blues," "Song for a Dark Girl," "Gal's Cry for a Dying Lover," "Drum," "The Bitter River," "Morning After," "Blue Bayou," "Life Is Fine"; Norton: from Montage of a Dream Deferred, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (pp. 964-68) **Resources** [[http://oyc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/hughessection_0.pdf|Section Activity: Langston Hughes [PDF] ]]