The Construction of Blackness:Reading Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois
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Department of English
Abstract
Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois in their texts revealthat there is black
awarenessblack utopiain their literature. They also showno place where an African
American can escape the equalities of racism.But both of themfavourtheblackness
withouthesitation and any shameandresistto white supremacy.However, they
create blackness in their culture, literatureandeven day to day life.Langston
Hughes'sThe Negro Artists and Racial MountainandHarlemsuggest the resistance
of white, supremacy and proclaims the end of racism butculture focusing African
American have not yet found a model for thinking and speaking outside the frameof
racist ideology. So,Hughes voicewishes the equality, a vision of racial difference.
Du Bois inThe Souls of Black Folkgives expression to hisprivilegingofAfrican
American blackness, the problemsblack's social degradation—Negro social
consciousness. He also looks the double-consciousness or one black feels his two-
ness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts two warring ideals in oneblack
body and Southern African American problems.