"Now Is The Time! Here Is The Place!": World War II and the Black Folk in the Writings of Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes and Ann Petry

Abstract

This dissertation proposes that the work produced by black writers between the end of the Depression and the end ofWorld War II, specifically that ofEllison, Himes and Petry--and to the degree that it influenced the others, that ofWright--comprises a distinct period in African American literature. Their work is characterized by a concern with the implications of the war for the self-determination of African Americans within the United States and for people of colour worldwide. In addition, these writers explored the effects of the war effort, particularly ofthe second Great Migration ofblack Americans from South to North, on the cultural and political strategies of African Americans as a whole. These migrants, the majority of whom had been employed as agricultural or domestic labourers in the South, entered into industrial occupations and left service work in private homes in unprecedented numbers. In their prewar role within a neo-feudal southern economy characterized by white power over the labouring black body, these workers were seen by many contemporary commentators, and particularly those aligned with the American Left, as conforming to a socio-economic category of the "folk." In the South, the black folk had developed strategies for survival and resistance, many of which were contained in their folklore. As these migrants entered into industrial relations of production and a concomitant working-class consciousness in a war-driven economy, African American writers, intellectuals, and workers were faced with the question of the degree to which this folk "past" was usable in the present. In the work ofEllison, Himes and Petry, the figure of the black folk in the urban-industrial environment, as it e/merged with the working class, became the embodied site for an examination of the massive cultural and political shifts engendered by World War II. In addition, each ofthese writers employed black folklore as a strategy in the struggle for Mrican American selfdetermination within the United States during the war.

This dissertation proposes that the work produced by black writers between the end of the Depression and the end ofWorld War II, specifically that ofEllison, Himes and Petry--and to the degree that it influenced the others, that ofWright--comprises a distinct period in African American literature. Their work is characterized by a concern with the implications of the war for the self-determination of African Americans within the United States and for people of colour worldwide. In addition, these writers explored the effects of the war effort, particularly ofthe second Great Migration ofblack Americans from South to North, on the cultural and political strategies of African Americans as a whole. These migrants, the majority of whom had been employed as agricultural or domestic labourers in the South, entered into industrial occupations and left service work in private homes in unprecedented numbers. In their prewar role within a neo-feudal southern economy characterized by white power over the labouring black body, these workers were seen by many contemporary commentators, and particularly those aligned with the American Left, as conforming to a socio-economic category of the "folk." In the South, the black folk had developed strategies for survival and resistance, many of which were contained in their folklore. As these migrants entered into industrial relations of production and a concomitant working-class consciousness in a war-driven economy, African American writers, intellectuals, and workers were faced with the question of the degree to which this folk "past" was usable in the present. In the work ofEllison, Himes and Petry, the figure of the black folk in the urban-industrial environment, as it e/merged with the working class, became the embodied site for an examination of the massive cultural and political shifts engendered by World War II. In addition, each ofthese writers employed black folklore as a strategy in the struggle for Mrican American selfdetermination within the United States during the war.