Paul Laurence Dunbar

The Works of Dunbar are still very available and accessible. There are a number of biographies as well as anthologies of the authors works. These anthologies contain his poetry, his short stories, and often both together.

Many of Dunbar's work are still in print to this day. His famous collection "Lyrics of Lowly Life" is accessible through amazon and could probably be found in many bookstores. There are many other anthologies and poetic collections available and in print in addition to this one in print today. A collection titled "Folks From Dixie" is a collection of previously scarce and expensive stories by Dunbar that is in reprint which makes them far more publicly accessible.

Online is also another reliable place to find all of Dunbar's literature. There are numerous websites dedicated to libraries of his works. Also, many poetry websites contain numerous works by Dunbar.

This wide variety of remaining accessibility demonstrates that Paul Laurence Dunbar's work still has much significance today. It has been lasting and remains in print for the reading of scholars everywhere.

There were two different perceptions of the works of Dunbar during his time. These perceptions were in stark contrast to one another and both contained legitimate argument in their support. Study of Dunbar's work have lead me to adopt the second interpretation, though it is understandable how the other took its form.

Dunbar as an Uncle Tomist:

Dunbar used, in many of his works, dialect of stereotypical, uneducated, African Americans. This came in the form of nearly illiterate, southern, rural blacks of the time. The convention of the time when portraying blacks in literature was to use this type of dialect. Whites were the primary writers of the time period, and this is how they perceived colored folk. Dunbar, in a sense, adopted this convention. This adoption allowed his works to be accepted by the white population, and opened his doorway to becoming a more mainstream writer.

Because of this people criticized him of being an Uncle Tomist, playing to the expectations of white people in order to meet their approval. In his article "This City as refuge, constructing Urban Blackness in Paul Laurence Dunbar's 'The Sport of the Gods,' and James Weldon Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man," Thomas L. Morgan writes:

"Positive depictions of African Americans in urban settings were neither prevalent nor acceptable to the literary establishment; as Dickinson Bruce Jr. states, African American writers 'could talk about themselves, their hopes, their aspirations, only in the language of mainstream America.'"

By doing exactly this Dunbar allowed himself to be perceived as an Uncle Tomist.

Dunbar as a Voice for his People:

Dunbar used dialect as a way of inviting whites into his literature. This invitation was well recieved due to the conventions he used. This was a very clever way of tricking his representation of his people onto the white population demonstrating that his dialectical use was actually acting positively for his people; it was giving African Americans a voice in write society.

"Thus, while the city offered the space for a potentially new start for African American authors, a clean slate that could be used to challenge realism's reified pastoral caricaturizations of blacks, obtaining access to that space was not simple. The ascendancy of realism in the 1890s conditioned how blacks were recognized in the public realm; African Americans were presented as out of place in the city, merely imitating white civility and refinement. To turn the city into a viable space for black representation would require social changes that most whites were unwilling to make. For the city to become a potential space for depicting black urban characters, white beliefs concerning the role and function of black bodies in urban environments would need to be refigured both politically and socially to undo the existing racial hierarchies that implicitly privileged whiteness," writes Morgan.

In his works Dunbar was able to incorporate the black voice and note many of the injustices faced by his people. He was clever enough to due this in a way that could be expressed beyond black readership and into the world of the unaccepting, urban whites.

The following link will bring you to the article quoted by Thomas L. Morgan:

The modern interpretation of Paul Laurence Dunbar is more in line with the second perception during his time. Scholrs now believe that Dunbar was, in fact, a writer for black interests and justice, but that he had to use the styles that he used to make his works effective and heard. In "Paul Laurence Dunbar: Dialect Et La Negritude," Gossie Herald Hudson writes, "At that time, Dunbar's Negritude was always a matter of articulating blackness under the tutelage of white publishing houses. Therefore, racism played a large role in dictating the extent of black consciousness in his writings." These are words from a modern scholar that demonstrate the necessity of Dunbar's use of 'racist' dialect.

In his writing Dunbar made efforts to promote black consciousness and highlight many of the injustices suffered by his people in his generation. He promoted action, and in some cases violence against the opression.

Dunbar also demonstrated his agreement and gritude for other activists of the time. This is apparent in his poem, "To Miss Mary Britton." Mary Britton was an African American women who had a strong voice in opposition to Kentucky's passage of the seperate coash bill. His poetry was often very political with regards to things like this which demonstrates his dedication to the progress of his fellow people and not his appeasement of oppressive whites.

"Dunbar attempted by means of his writing to create black consciousness in his black readers... he was cognizant of the fact that after more than two centuries of bondage blacks were still denied the privilege of becoming literate... he concerned himself with the injustices suffered by the people of his age and generation," writes Hudson.

The following link will bring you to the article quoted in this section which give a more in depth understanding of the modern perceptions and interpretations of Dunbar's works.

Paul Laurence Dunbar is a very obvious example of an American Poet. He is part of the Realistic Period of American literature. Dunbar used his works to portray real images of America as it was in his generation and times. He highlights aspects of society and American culture and leaves a sort of history for his readers to learn.