Racial Memories in Langston Hughes's Selected Poems

Abstract

The present research attempts to inquire into one of the supposedly inherited faculties of sub-conscious memories of events in history and pre history, particularly the racial memories present in the black descendents. For this purpose, the manifestations of racial memories are analyzed in detail, selecting some of the best poems of Hughes. In fact, racial memories signify the transferred memories of the race and its traditional and cultural domains as portrayed in the literary works. These are the long-lived memories obliged to the race and racial properties. In the first two chapters, the research deals with the black race and its historical and social position in America together with the relation between race and literature. The third chapter, particularly, deals with the racial memories manifested in Hughes's poems. It also discloses the unexcavated territories hidden in each black descendent with emphasis on the nostalgic expressions towards the land of origin, Africa and racial traditions. The final chapter concludes the research by exploring the major issues and the causes of manifestation of racial memories in Hughes's poems. Therefore, the research has, more importantly, explored the impact of the racial past and racial traditions emerged as racial memories in the black descendents. Langston Hughes's selected poems are shaped by the theme of racial memories on the part of the black descendents. They have been haunted by the racial past and racial traditions of the black predecessors. The diminishing cultural treasures and invaluable traditions of the black ancestors have been recollected as racial memories in Hughes's selected poems. In gist, the American experiences of the black descendents with reference to the black forerunners, and their racial traditions have also been assembled as racial memories in Hughes's selected poems.