Dream as an Alternative History in Langston Hughes’s Selected Poems
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Department of English
Abstract
This proposed paper aims to explore dream as an alternative history in Langston Hughes’ selected poems, “Harlem: A Dream Deferred”, “Dream Variations”, “Dreams”, “Dreams Boogie”, “I Continue to Dream”, “I Dream a World” and “The Dream Keeper”. This thesis also analyzes the historical connotation of African American revolution that attracts Hughes mind to tackle on the issues of the blacks. As the voice of the blacks was suppressed and muted, Hughes endeavors to raise voice on behalf of the blacks through literature. Hughes inaugurates a world of dream which becomes an alternative history for the blacks because the unsayable can be said through fantasy or dreams. The dream of the blacks is all about fantasy and imagination where they blacks imagined their colorful life with home, fraternity and freedom. The close observation of dream as motif in his poems serves as an alternative history when examined from the point of view of New Historicism.
Keywords: Dream, Imagination, History, New Historicism