The Power of Folk Culture as a Navigational Tool in an Ever-Changing, Modern-Day Society

Jacob Lawrence's The Migration of the Negro from the Migration Series
(1940-41)

"Yes, I thought, what about those of us who shoot up from the South into the busy city like wild jacks-in-the-box broken loose from our springs- so sudden that our gait becomes like that of deep-sea divers suffering from the bends?" - Protagonist in Ellison's Invisible Man

As I study African-American Literature, I have become more and more interested in the portrayal of the migration of black Southerners to the urban, industrial North. Many authors tied to the Harlem Renaissance, notably Ellison, Wright, and Hurston, were inspired by the events of the Great Migration Era (1919-1929) and sought to uncover and creatively express the transformation of the southern Negro's consciousness as he or she developed into a more modernized and urban individual. Unfortunately, this mental transformation was often marked by intense periods of disorientation, confusion, turmoil, and alienation. These occurances, however, should come as no surprise considering the stark contrast between the South and the North, which resulted in the difficultyblacks faced in effectively applying the teachings of their folk culture to an industrialized and increasingly modernized society.

Notwithstanding this difficulty, however, Ellison, Wright, and Hurston did not lose all hope in the power of black folk culture to serve in some manner as a tool of survival and navigation for blacks living in urban enviroments. For example, the authors explored how various folk songs, aphorisms, and oral narratives of southern black folk culture could be used to help black urban dwellers understand how to combat the latent forms of racism found in the North. Ellison effectively demonstrates this use of folk culture in his novel, Invisible Man, where the protagonist slowly draws a connection between a folk song he learned growing up in the South, which makes references to lynching, and the racial discrimination he faces while living in Harlem. While he is not being physically attacked by his white counter-parts, the protagonist comes to believe that he is being symbolically lynched.

Furthermore, the Renaissance authors also acknowledge how limiting folk culture can be to urban blacks and urge them to make the effort to reach beyond the confines of folk tradition and adopt aspects of the modern-day rationale. This rationale includes the celebration of individuality, creativity, open-mindedness, and most importantly, progress and self-improvement.

Similarily, I appreciate Hoggart's hope in the ability the English working-class has to navigate an ever-changing society through the use of speech, oral tradition, superstition, and myth. Hoggart writes, "The truth lies between the two extremes: the persistence in so strong a measure of older froms of speech does not indicate a powerful and vibrant continuance of an earlier tradition, but the tradition is not altogether dead. It is harked back to, leaned upon as a fixed and still largely trustworthy field of reference in world now difficult to understand" (28). It is all too common that intellectuals and academics become so pessimistic about the fate of marginalized and oppressed groups to the extent that they label the tools of their culture as antiquated and inapplicable to modern-day society. Conversely, Hoggart refuses
to ignore such tools. Although he refrains from overly romanticizing the lives of the working-class, Hoggart still celebrates their ability to resist the tendency to seperate themselves entirely from their culture. Furthermore, Hoggart is still being realistic in the sense that he acknowledges the inevitability that members of the working-class will have to adopt modern-day sensibilities in order to survive. For Hoggart, however, just like the Renaissance authors, it is all about balance.