She offers examples from her own students at the University of Vermont. Moreover, Bernard herself is clearly troubled by the title, a clear indication of continued trauma brought by the use of the word in whatever context it appears. This trauma results in her own reluctance to teach the novel even in a supposed liberal, post-racial America.
In part three, Bernard examines letters between Van Vechten and his Harlem Renaissance friends and others, as Van Vechten sought to recover his reputation after the disastrous titling. Apparently, he never did.
In fact, many accused him of taking unfair advantage of black hospitality by assuming both privilege and agency, and many felt that his influence on Harlem Renaissance writers, especially Langston Hughes and Claude McKay, really went too far. If you would like to authenticate using a different subscribed institution that supports Shibboleth authentication or have your own login and password to Project MUSE, click 'Authenticate'.
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Photographer Carl Van Vechten’s Portraits From the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond on Display
Through his connections with white publishing houses and wealthy patrons, he secured deals for black writers and artists. This helped many black artists, but also gave Van Vechten inordinate control of who got white largesse; appeasing his tastes and ego often became crucial to success. He simplistically saw the strength of black literature, music and art as a core primitivism, an earthy counterpoint to what he considered tepid white culture. His view of black culture was largely anthropological, as a tourist among the exotics, and much of his work on behalf of black artists today seems paternalistic and condescending.
Carl Van Vechten - Wikipedia
He loved to take groups of famous whites—including at one point H. And then there was the problem of Nigger Heaven. Van Vechten was very aware that the title of his novel about black life would offend when he published the book in Before publication, his father begged him to change it, and close black friends like James Weldon Johnson counseled him not to use the title.
But he ignored their advice. Early in Nigger Heaven , a character says the word and Van Vechten adds this footnote, the only one in the book: At one point, a black crowd burned it. But to view Van Vechten solely as a racial dilettante is to misunderstand the man, the racial boundaries he crossed, and the artistic world in which he operated.
Bernard has done a wonderful job of bringing Van Vechten to life and showing his inconvenient place in the Harlem movement.