A Reading of Langston Hughes’s Poetry from the New Negro Renaissance Through a Pragmatic Lens Using William James’s Philosophy Öffentlichkeit

Abstract

William James was a prolific figure in New York just a few years prior to the beginning of the New Negro Renaissance, most commonly known as the Harlem Renaissance, that has been typically said to span from the 1920s to the 1930s. Using his pragmatism as literary theory, I analyze some of Langston Hughes’s poems published during the Renaissance to reveal the attention, blindness, radical empiricism, focus on conjunctive and lived experience, pluralism of thought and meaning, truth of racism, the process of personal consciousness, and habit of style. This essay bridges a gap between black and white academic writing while also providing a reading of Hughes’s poetry in a pragmatic lens.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The New Negro Renaissance, Langston Hughes, and the

prevalence of William James………………..………………………………………………...1

I: Attention and Blindness …………………………………………………………………...11

II: Radical Empiricism, Experience, Pluralism and Truth …………………………………..34

III: Stream of Thought and Habit ……………………………………………………………61

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………...86

Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………89

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Philosophy
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Philosophy African American Studies Literature, American
Stichwort	Poetry and Pragmatism Pragmatism Radical Empiricism Langston Hughes African American Poetry William James Harlem Renaissance New Negro Renaissance
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	John J. Stuhr, Emory University
Committee Members	Jessica T. Wahman, Emory University Michelle Y. Gordon, Emory University

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