Word, Image, and the New Negro: Representation and Identity in the Harlem Renaissance

This book focuses on the collaborative illustrated volumes published during the Harlem Renaissance, in which African Americans used written and visual texts to shape ideas about themselves and to redefine African American identity. Anne Elizabeth Carroll argues that these volumes show how participants in the movement engaged in the processes of representation and identity formation in sophisticated and largely successful ways. Though they have received little scholarly attention, these volumes constitute an important aspect of the cultural production of the Harlem Renaissance. Word, Image, and the New Negro marks the beginning of a long-overdue recovery of this legacy and points the way to a greater understanding of the potential of texts to influence social change.

"In tracing the formation of the idea of the New Negro through the vital interplay of literature, artand social criticism, Word Imageand the New Negro makes a superb contribution to scholarship on the Harlem Renaissancethe history of African American publishingand modern American culture." --Eric J. Sundquist, author of To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature

"A very welcome contribution to the contemporary rethinking of the period. By calling our attention to the images that consistently and significantly appeared alongside some of the well-remembered texts of the Harlem Renaissance, Carroll foregrounds the very modernity that the New Negro Movement sought self-consciously to embrace.... Carroll's eye for the particular will have both a helpful and inspiring effect on readers who want to continue building on the work she has done here." --H-Urban Indiana University Press

"Carroll's book would serve well in an upper-level undergraduate course as an introductory study of the interaction of texts and visuals in American magazines of the twentieth century. Her ideas are generally clear... and easy to follow." --American Studies, Vol. 50:1/2

"The first detailed comparative analysis of the mix of text and illustration in the major African American magazines and anthologies of the 1910s and 1920s. It is a major advance in our understanding of what amounted to innovative collage forms articulated to race and politics. Carefully theorized and rich with persuasive readings, the book should appeal not only to literary scholars but also to anyone interested in modernity and the little magazine." --Cary Nelson, author of Revolutionary Memory Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

"... The author's analysis of how the illustrations amplify and create tension with the writing and how they empower and sometimes disempower their subjects is the first critical work in this important area. Generously illustrated. Highly recommended." --Choice

A study of the interaction of word and image in the creative work of the Harlem Renaissance

Anne Elizabeth Carroll is Associate Professor of English at Wichita State University.