On The Construction Of Nationality In Langston Hughes’ Poems

Langston Hughes is one of the most important American writers in the 20th century.He is the most outstanding African American poet in the Harlem Renaissance,and plays an important role in American literature.In his more than 40-year poetry creation career,his poetry style has undergone several major changes from the aestheticism in the 1920s to the radicalism after the Great Depression,and then to experimental creation after McCarthy in the 1950s.However,the expression of nationality has always been the theme of his poetry,and has become the soul of Hughes’poetry thoughts.This thesis analyzes the unique structure,the changing styles,the complex and profound themes and the contradiction between religion and belief in Hughes’ poems,through the four aspects of history,religion,language and art,thus exploring the role of his poetry in the construction of nationality.From a historical perspective,Hughes connected Africa and America by identifying the root of African culture,in order to remember the history,carry forward the Afro-American culture and strengthen the national consciousness of African Americans;from a religion perspective,Hughes’ contradictory attitude truly reflects the desire of African American to combat racial discrimination and pursue national equality;from a language perspective,Hughes used black English,a unique language,to construct nationality,so as to make Afro-American culture out of the long-term marginalization;from an artistic perspective,it is mainly reflected in the application of black music and the embodiment of aesthetic thought in his poetry.These two sides gave his poetry a deeper cultural heritage of African American,making his poetry national.Hughes expressed his concern and thinking about African American firmly in his poems.The thesis only makes some tentative analysis of Hughes and his poetry on the construction of nationality,hoping it can provide more views for the readers to appreciate Hughes’poems,and provide more possibilities for the communication and dissemination of his poems in China.