Date of Award
2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Zamsky, Robert
Keywords
Jazz, Poetry, Baraka, Hughes, Music, Beat, Counterculture
Area of Concentration
Humanities
Abstract
In the early 1920s, poets in America began using a vocabulary based on folk forms and speech. African-American folk culture started playing a central role in the arts and became a way to construct cultural identity. Jazz music and classic blues were on the rise as the popular music of the time. The music and poetry were evolving parallel to one another and share many similar characteristics. This thesis analyzes the poetic works of six authors involved in the genre of jazz poetry. My research is chronological beginning at the start of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and continuing to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and through to the 1980s. I analyze how works by these six poets reflect the evolutions in jazz music from swing, to bebop, and eventually free jazz.
Recommended Citation
Maioriello-Gallus, Isabel, "Jazz Poetry The American Idiom" (2010). Theses & ETDs. 4297.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/4297