Characteristics of Negro Expression

Descriere

The racial prejudices of 1930s America were many, and included a common presumption that African American art was unoriginal - merely poorly copying white culture. Where white European tradition views art as something fixed, Hurston saw African-American art works as a distinctive form of mimicry, reshaping and altering the original object until it became something new and novel. In this way, she contended, African-American creative expression is a process that generates its own form of originality - turning borrowed material into something original and unique. By carefully evaluating the relevance of previous arguments, Hurston showed African American artistic expression in an entirely new light.