In the process of this essay I will engage with a critical exploration of the blues literary tradition. Through this study I will examine African culture and its retentions held in the blues form. It is important to link both the musical undertones of African music and the oral storytelling form, within this tradition. I argue that these dual features are a purposeful attempt at raising the ritual heritage of Africa to the level of artistic expression. This reclamation of traditional forms of expression is projected into the contemporary setting of the 20th Century. In the broader sense of discussion it is important to place value upon such traditions, particularly the significance the blues literary tradition has within the contemporary setting. Through the works of Ralph Ellison's the Invisible Man (1952) and Toni Morrison's Jazz (1992) I show not only how both writers retain African forms of expression, but more importantly how these traditions are changed/ adapted in order to create a new, unique form of African American expression.
In the Invisible Man Ellison examines African American culture, and how this has evolved under white oppression. He endeavours to show that rather than assimilate into the American consciousness, black culture evolves through adaptive means. In evolving through re-invention and notably syncretism Ellison shows how traditions can be broken down to reveal a fragmented African American consciousness. Ellison purposely does this in order to reconstruct and in turn define the African American consciousness. In Ellison's attempts at deconstructing the African American consciousness, he draws heavily upon songs, folklore and stereotypes. Racism for Ellison was seen as a, 'barrier to individual thought and expression' (Morel, 2006, p.60), Ellison here is quite specifically maintaining that African Americans do have a distinct voice. He argues against this repression by reminding us that, 'If the white society has tried to do anything to us, it has tried to keep us from being individuals' (Ellison, 1995, p. 394) whilst, 'While you whites have schools and books for teaching your children...we tell them stories, for our stories are our books' (Levine, 1977, p.90), here Ellison focus' on storytelling and evokes the oral traditions in expressing the American Negro's 'voice'. Essentially he argues that the strongest expression of the 'repressed' American Negro voice; is contained within American culture and language itself. I believe that the distinctiveness of American culture is found in its incorporation of multiple voices, one of which is the African American voice in which Ellison through his work is trying to give expression to.
At the heart of Toni Morrison's novel Jazz, the reader is drawn into the cityscape and introduced to a hidden undercurrent that pulsates throughout the novel, the Jazz form is represented as an oral expression of consciousness. Morrison particularly focus' on the area known as Harlem, it had a particular reverence amongst African Americans, it was seen as a central hub for the artistic movement known as the Harlem renaissance. Harlem was, 'much more than just a black neighbourhood...but the capital of black America' (Paquet-Deyris, 2001, p.219), and embodies the very feeling of what the mass migration to the north and the artistic movement meant as a whole. Harlem's status was raised, there was a creative power attempting to forge a new Negro identity here, this was done in part down to a flowering of Negro literature. Morrison notes that Harlem as a cityscape became a dreamscape for many African Americans, it offered them, 'what America had once offered its immigrants' (Morrison, 1993, p94) a chance to reassemble a fractured identity, essentially it was a new beginning. The artistic movement of Harlem offered an imbued vision of expression for the African American, for it provided new 'raiment's of the self' (Morrison, 1993, p34). Jazz is representative of change, specifically the adaptive changes the main characters make, during their experience of migration to the north. We see this in the character of Joe as he runs, 'from one part of the country to another' (Morrison, 2001, p.126) eventually settling within the city.
The events of the novel mark the city space as a place of traumatic memory for the main characters, this is formulated by the death of Dorcas within the three way love-triangle of the novel. Memory also affects Violet, as the memory of her dead mother materialises in the novel by cracks forming in the street. Essentially the leading characters traumatic memories are projected onto the city space itself. Now how does all this relate to the Jazz form of oral expression within the novel? Well it is important to consider Morrison's narrative style and structure of the novel, which to an extent seems to mimic the evocative style of Jazz music. We see, 'the deliberate use of alliteration and of words repeated to speed tempo...[these] all come together to recreate the impact of jazz' (Rodrigues, 1997, p. 247). This is evident near the beginning of the novel, Alice Manfred notes her view of the city space of Fifth Avenue, 'from curb to curb, came a tide of cold black faces' (Morrison, 2001, p 54). The cold black faces are speechless here, we can draw parallels here within Ellison's attempts at reclaiming the 'voice' of the American Negro. Morrison replaces speech here with the, 'drums saying what the graceful women and the marching men could not' (Morrison, 2001, p. 53). This relates nicely to what Rodrigues says when, 'Morrison used many strategies to make the visual, as opposed to the audible, text resound' (Rodrigues, 1997, p. 249). I believe Morrison positions the African American 'voice' as a silence intentionally, she then replaces the vocal expression with an evocative style of rhythm, a form of Jazz oral expression. The rhythm of Jazz music mimics the rhythm of, 'a tide of cold black faces' (Morrison, 2001, p 54), Morrison evokes the rhythm of Jazz, this rhythm pulsates through the 'tide' in order to create a new form of expression for the African American consciousness.
In the Invisible Man Ellison reconstructs and adapts cultural materials, in order to recover black traditions and in doing so he attempts to challenge the way that race is represented in American society. If we take the battle royal scene at the beginning of the novel, this highlights the conflicting roles and/or masks placed upon African Americans. Through this scene I believe Ellison illustrates how these sociological conflicts drive the evolution of African music in a way that can be projected into contemporary society, he does this in order to create a new form of expression for African Americans. Ellison works through symbolic modes of representation, the naked white dancer for example represents all America has to offer, with 'her American flag tattooed upon her belly' (Ellison, 2001, p.21) this is a symbolic reference to something African Americans strive towards, a cultural identity within the African American consciousness. The girls nakedness only serves to reinforce for the boys how thoroughly shrouded she is, 'like the thinnest of veils' (Ellison, 2001, p.21) in racial proscriptions. I believe the naked dancer as a visual form functions as a sexualised version of Booker T Washington's statue, in which he lifts the veil from a kneeling black man. On the matter of this statue the narrator explains that he is, 'unable to decide whether the veil is really lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am facing a revelation or a more efficient blinding' (Ellison, 2001, p. 36). Similarly as Morrison's narrator further penetrates the city landscape she is confronted by blurred visions, I believe that in an attempt at lifting the veil she reveals signs of perverse racism, that still infest Harlem society. This is shown when, 'the Negro surgeon is visiting, pride cuts down the pain' (Morrison, 2001, p. 7). However I do believe Morrison adapts the blues form into Jazz to reinterpret an African American voice that speaks outside a mode of perverse racism. The rhythm of the Jazz music is an oral expression it, 'Crawls along the walls of buildings, disappears into doorways [and] cuts across corners in choked traffic' (Morrison, 2001, p. 55). I believe expression in these terms illuminates and acts as a medium in healing the characters psychological wounds, the Jazz expression here penetrates the perverse racism at hand here.
Moving back to the battle royal scene in Ellison's work, the boxing match draws out the evolving adaptive nature of music. Ellison pays particular attention to the ritual heritage of the African Americans, notably the tribal instincts of dance, he then raises this to a level of artistic expression. The actual fight carries with it a rhythm, a rhythm of a tribal drumming circle, 'I could see the black, sweat washed forms weaving in the smoky-blue atmosphere like drunken dancers weaving to the rapid drum like thuds of blows' (Ellison, 2001, p. 23). This scene retains the spirit of African tribal music and brings it further into the African American consciousness and at one point during the scene it is as if he is being called out for an improvised solo, 'get going black boy, mix it up!' (Ellison, 2001, p.22). Ellison draws upon the deep ties between early African music and the modern blues form. Levine talks of the spontaneity of tribal dance and how crowds take it, 'upon a spiritual tune, hammered here and there among the crowd...the trend was carried on by a deep undercurrent, that appeared to be stronger than the mind of the individual present' (Levine, 1997, p.27) this collective consciousness of early African music seems in tune with the rhythm's of the blues tradition. Ellison is adaptive in his approach for a new African American consciousness, he seeks to embrace it and thus give it an expressive nature. This it seems shows a retention of African ritualistic heritage whilst also being a progressive creative force, which gives the African American consciousness a new voice.
It is important to note that dominant American culture commonly characterises the older traditions as historically remote, it does this in order to repress them. What is interesting is that Ellison's novel seeks to counter this and affirm that which is past is actually a living part of the present consciousness. There is a battle here between the dominant American culture and its repressive nature towards the African American consciousness. It is also important to recognise that there is also a conflict between the individual American Negro and the African American community. At the end of the initial battle, there is the narrator and Tatlock left in the ring, in this scene we see conflicting interests. The narrator asks, "Fake like I knocked you out, you can have the prize", "I'll break your behind" he whispered hoarsely, "For them?", "For me, sonofabitch!" (Ellison, 2001, p.24). This exchange represents an undermining of cultural values, there is no prize for either character at the end of this. The narrator understands this, whilst for Tatlock there is an illusion here, the competition is all he sees. Essentially instead of Tatlock merging himself into a new voice for the African American consciousness, he is blinded by the illusion. This ongoing cultural battle is defeatist in its approach, 'this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America' (Hughes, 1926, p.1311). This racial mountain that Hughes discuss' immobilises any notion of upward social progression within the African American consciousness. Ellison is battling within a liminal space here where, 'minority discourses speak betwixt and between times and places' (Bhabha, 1994, p.227), this in between space complicates the effort to construct a notion of cultural hybridity, one that entertains difference without an assumed or imposed hierarchy.
Morrison regards the Blues and also Jazz music as being firmly rooted in African-American history. One of the key themes throughout her work is the question of ownership she notes that for, 'some black people, Jazz meant claiming their own bodies. You can imagine what that must have meant for people whose bodies had been owned...[for them] Blues and Jazz represented ownership of one's own emotions' (Morrison, 2008, p.83). These ideas go back to the plantation days of slavery, where the only thing that an American Negro slave owned was his thoughts, specifically memories of ritual heritage in the form of songs, folklore and storytelling. To an extent this retention of oral expression was seen as a mode of resistance. If we take the Blues, its principal format is vocal music inspired by personal experiences felt by African Americans. Jazz music which evolved from the Blues uses instruments that imitate the human voice, 'the Africans also used drums for communication...by the phonetic reproduction of the words themselves' (Jones, 1999, p.25-26). Expression through these means allows the African American to take ownership of their voice through different modes. It is interesting to note here that slave work songs were prevented, 'as the white man learned that drums could be used to incite revolt' (Jones, 1999, p.19). In light of this reasoning the sound of the drums on Fifth Avenue, 'spanned the distance, gathering them all up and connected them' (Morrison, 2001, p.58) this interconnectedness that Alice observes, seems to be rooted in the original African American music. Morrison builds a space for African Americans to assert their existence, those that are silenced by racism are given a new voice, one that resonates and expresses their resistance.
In the Invisible Man we are also confronted with the problems of ownership, specifically that of the spoken word. Ellison's protagonist grapples with his own invisibility which is a result of repression and racism directed towards him. The Invisible Man faces a sense of double invisibility that stems from a denial of his social status, this should be seen as an internalised repression of his African heritage. Essentially, 'I myself, after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility' (Ellison, 2001, p.6) the protagonist here closes his eyes to his own invisibility, rather he sees himself through the perspective of the college and later on the brotherhood. W.E. DuBois accounted for this condition as acting in the realm of 'double consciousness' for him, 'this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others...one ever feels his twoness- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body' (DuBois, 1903, Handout). The 'warring ideal' that Dubois speaks of is the Invisible Man, he is caught between two conflicting spaces and finds himself within a liminal space. What Dubois seems to point towards was an acknowledgment of a need for hybridisation of the African American. Indeed I believe Ellison points towards this too, throughout the text we follow the protagonist on a journey to find expression, the Invisible man can only find this expression by reclaiming his voice or his speech within the text. On one hand social forces have suspended the African American within his own invisibility. The Invisible Man must draw upon the written word or speech to form a new unique African American consciousness, but the 'word' was the very thing that was used to reduce the African American to nothingness, it was imposed upon the American Negro as a way of controlling their fixed roles. The question is do we possess the word or does the word posses us? The Invisible Man attempts to talk himself into being he was after-all, 'brought here to deliver a speech' He goes on to talk of 'social equality' and 'social responsibility' (Ellison, 2001, p.29-30) but fails with a resounding laughter. However the Invisible man is positioned by Ellison as a hybridised figure, at first he fails but slowly through the progression of the novel we see how inevitable that his, 'words would spill from my lips in a mumble over which [he] had little control' (Ellison, 2001, p. 253).
Through the process of this study I have attempted to show how Blues and Jazz traditions in literature have attempted to mimic the Blues in its oral form. In Jazz I have shown that by using elements of Jazz music, such as rhythm, we can see how it can be used as a way of linking the past and present. Morrison reclaims elements of the early blues form in which to give expression to her characters, we purposely see how the Jazz form is used as a vehicle to heal characters that are afflicted by the Blues. We also see how Ellison discusses elements of the Blues, by doing so he takes these elements from an oral form and places them into written form. In doing this Ellison adapts the oral expression of the African American, he raises the traditions of the American Negro to the level of artistic expression in African American literature.
Morrison forms her narrative around the death of Dorcas, this is seen as the underlying melody or rhythm throughout the text. Using these elements like this within her text allows Morrison to construct a Blues novel that evokes the Blues' oral form in both its rhythm and style. Through a discussion on the American Negro's ownership of the word, we see how Ellison attempts to transform the reader's perspective of the African American, specifically their place within American literature and society. Ellison see's African Americans as being a creative force within society, Ellison notes, 'I don't recognise any white culture...I recognise no American culture which is not the partial creation of black people'. I believe that both writers retain African forms of expression, the important thing to understand is that they then take these elements of tradition and purposely adapt them in order to create a new, unique form of African American expression.
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