“Words on Fire:” Langston Hughes and the Black Hegelian Poetic in The Panther and the Lash

Year 2024, Issue: 61, 23 - 47, 29.06.2024

Bryan Banker

Abstract

Langston Hughes (1901-1967), the American poet, novelist, playwright, and social activist, is not only a central figure in American literature but also considered one of the pioneers of a distinct African American literary voice. From his integral part of the literary and intellectual scene of the Harlem Renaissance to the American Civil Rights era, Hughes’ powerful and innovative work captured the struggles, joys, and complexities of Black life. While Hughes’ catalog is exhaustive, this study focuses on his final collection, The Panther and the Lash (1967), which offers an exemplary depiction of Hughes’ evolving philosophical thought.
His formulation of major racial, social, and political themes and subjects in the collection reveals the profound impact of Hughes’ intellectual mentor, W. E. B. Du Bois, and his study of Hegelian dialectical philosophy. What emerges, I argue, a Black Hegelian poetic—the conceptualization of Hegelian philosophical principles to explore and articulate the complexities of Black experiences and identity, signifying a synthesis of philosophical thought, cultural consciousness, and poetic expression. The analysis of The Panther and the Lash showcases Hughes’ ability to intensify differences, negate contraries, and engage in a continual process of formation and re-formation. Thus, readers can interrogate his Black responses to the historical, socio-political movements and events that have taken place towards the end of his life.

Keywords

Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, Hegel, dialectical philosophy, African American aesthetics, poetry

References

• Adell, Sandra. Double-Consciousness/Double Bind: Theoretical Issues in Twentieth-Century Black Literature. U of Illinois P, 1994.
• Adorno, T. W. Negative Dialectics. Translated by E. B. Ashton. Routledge, [1966] 2004.
• Allen, Ernest Jr. “Du Boisian Double Consciousness: The Unsustainable Argument.” Massachusetts Review, vol. 43, no. 2, 2002, pp. 217- 253.
• Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised Edition. Verso, 2006.
• Bagoo, Andre. “Langston Hughes’ Down-Low Dreams.” The Gay & Lesbian Review, vol. 28, no. 5, 2021, pp. 10-14.
• Banker, Bryan. “Paul Robeson as Black Hegelian?: Dialectical Aesthetics in The Emperor Jones.” “Im/possibility: On the Production, Distribution, and Articulation of the Possible and the Impossible,” Coils of the
• Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power, no. 8, 2021, pp. 80-100.
• Basevich, Elvira. “WEB Du Bois’ Critique of Radical Reconstruction (1865–77): A Hegelian Approach to American Modernity.” Philosophy & Social Criticism, vol. 45, no. 2, 2019, pp. 168-185.
• ---.”What is an Anti-Racist Philosophy of Race and History? A New Look at Kant, Hegel, and Du Bois,” Critical Philosophy of Race, vol. 10, no. 1, 2022, pp. 71-89.Barrett, Lindon. “The Gaze of Langston Hughes: Subjectivity, Homoeroticism, and the Feminine in The Big Sea.” The Yale Journal of Criticism, vol. 12, no. 2, 1999, pp. 383-397.
• Bennett, Juda. “Multiple Passings and the Double Death of Langston Hughes.” Biography, vol. 23, no. 4, 2000, pp. 670-693. Bernasconi, Robert. “Hegel’s Racism,” Radical Philosophy, no. 119, 2003, pp. 32-37.
• Best, Wallace. “Looking for Langston: Themes of Religion, Sexuality, and Evasion in the Life and Work of Langston Hughes.” The Langston Hughes Review, vol. 5, no. 1, 2019, pp. 28-40.
• Bonetto, Sandra. ‘Race and Racism in Hegel,’ Minerva, no. 10, 2006, pp. 35-64.
• Borden, Anne. “Heroic “Hussies” and “Brilliant Queers:” Genderracial Resistance in the Works of Langston Hughes.” African American Review, vol. 28, no. 3, 1994, pp. 333-345. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970.
• Carbado, Devon. Black Men on Race, Gender, and Sexuality: A Critical Reader. New York UP, 1999.
• Chauncey, George. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940. Basic Books, 1994.
• Cole, Andrew. “How to Think a Figure; or, Hegel’s Circles.” Representations, 2017, pp. 44-66.
• Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. Routledge, 2004.
• Cooppan, Vilashini. “The Double Politics of Double Consciousness: Nationalism and Globalism in The Souls of Black Folk.” Public Culture vol. 17, no. 2, 2005, pp. 299-318.
• de Laurentiis, Allegra. Hegel’s Anthropology. Life, Psyche, and Second Nature. Northwestern UP, 2021.
• Donnelly, Andrew. “Langston Hughes on the DL.” College Literature, vol. 44, no. 1, 2017, pp. 30-57.
• Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Oxford World’s Classics Edition. Edited by Brent Hayes Edwards. Oxford UP, 2007.
• Gates Jr., Henry Louis. “The Black Man’s Burden.” Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory. Edited by Michael Warner. U of Minnesota P, 1993. 230-238.
• Gates Jr., Henry Louis and K. A. Appiah. Langston Hughes: Critical Perspectives Past and Presents. Amistad Press, 1993.
• Gooding-Williams, Robert. In the Shadow of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America. Harvard UP, 2009.
• Graham, Shane. Cultural Entanglements: Langston Hughes and the Rise of African and Caribbean Literature. U of Virginia P, 2020.
• Harper, Akiba. (ed) Langston Hughes. Not So Simple: The “Simple” Stories by Langston Hughes. U of Missouri P, 1995.
• Harris, Kimberly Ann. “Du Bois and Hegelian Idealism.” Idealistic Studies, vol. 51, no. 2, 2021, pp. 149-167.
• Hegel, G. W. F. Aesthetics, Lectures on Fine Art Vol. 1. Translated by T. M. Knox. Clarendon Press, 1975.
• ---. Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art Volume II. Trans. T. M. Knox. Clarendon Press, 1975.
• ---. The Phenomenology of Spirit. Edited by J. N. Findlay, translated by A. V. Miller. Clarendon Press, 1977.
• ---. Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Allen W. Wood (ed). Trans. H.B. Nisbet. Cambridge UP, 1991.
• ---. The Encyclopedia Logic: Part 1 of the Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences. Trans. W.A. Suchting, and H.S. Harris T. F. Geraets. Hackett, 1991.
• Henry, Paget. “Myth, Language, and Habermasian Rationality: Another Africana Contribution.” Perspectives on Habermas. Edited by Lewis Edwin Hahn. Open Court, 2000, pp. 89-112.
• Hoffheimer, Michael. “Hegel, Race, Genocide,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 39, 2001, pp. 35-62.
• Hughes, Langston. “My Adventures as a Social Poet.” Phylon (1940- 1956), vol. 8, no. 3, 1947, pp. 205-212.
• ---. The Panther and the Lash. Vintage Books, 1967.
• ---. The Big Sea. 2nd Edition. Hill and Wang, 1993.
• ---. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Vintage, 1995.
• ---. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume III, The Poems: 1951-1967. U of Missouri P, 2001.
• ---. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Autobiography, The Big Sea. Edited by Joseph McLaren, vol. 13. U of Missouri P, 2002.
• James, Daniel, and Franz Knappik. “Exploring the Metaphysics of Hegel’s Racism: The Teleology of the ‘Concept’ and the Taxonomy of Races,” Hegel Bulletin, 2022, pp. 1-28.
• Jarraway, David. “Montage of an Otherness Deferred: Dreaming Subjectivity in Langston Hughes.” American Literature, vol. 68, no. 4, 1996, pp. 819-847.
• Kirkland, Frank M. “How Would Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit Be Relevant Today?” Logos, vol. 7, no. 1, 2008. ---. “Hegel and the Saint Domingue Revolution -‘Perfect Together’? A Review of Susan Buck-Morss’s
• Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History.” Logos, vol. 11, no. 2-3, 2012. ---. “On Du Bois’s Notion of Double Consciousness” Philosophy Compass, vol. 8, no. 2, 2013, pp. 137-148.
• ---. “Hegel on Race and Development.” The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Race. Paul C. Taylor, Linda Mart.n Alcoff, and Luvell Anderson (eds.). Routledge, 2018, pp.43-60.
• Kirkland, Paul. “Sorrow Songs and Self-Knowledge: The Politics of Recognition and Tragedy in W. E. B. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk.” American Political Thought: A Journal of Ideas, Institutions, and Culture, no. 4 (Summer) 2015, pp. 412-437.
• McCarney, Joseph. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel on History. Routledge, 2000.
• Miller, W. Jason. Langston Hughes. Reaktion Books, 2020.
• Miller, Ron Baxter. “‘A Mere Poem:’ “Daybreak in Alabama,” A Resolution to Langston Hughes’s Theme of Music and Art.” Obsidian (1975-1982), 1976, pp. 30-37. ---. The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes. UP of Kentucky, 2006.
• Moellendorf, Darrel. “Racism and Rationality in Hegel’s Philosophy of Subjective Spirit,” History of Political Thought, vol. 13, no. 2, 1992, pp. 243-55.
• Neugebauer, Christian. “The Racism of Hegel and Kant,” Sage Philosophy: Indigenous Thinkers and Modern Debate on African Philosophy. Edited by . Brill, 1990.
• Ponce, Martin. “Langston Hughes’s Queer Blues.” Modern Language Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 4, 2005, pp. 505-538.
• Purtschert, Patricia. “On the Limit of Spirit: Hegel’s Racism Revisited,” Philosophy & Social Criticism, vol. 36, no. 9, 2010, pp. 1039-51.
• Rampersad, Arnold. “Introduction.” Hughes, Langston. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume III, The Poems: 1951-1967. U of Missouri P, 2001, pp. 1-12.
• ---. The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941, I, Too, Sing America. Oxford UP, 2002.
• ---. The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914-1967, I Dream a World. Oxford UP, 2002.
• Reed Jr., Adolph L. W. E. B. Du Bois and American Political Thought. Oxford UP, 1997.
• Reimonenq, Alden. “Hughes, Langston (1902-1967).” Gay and Lesbian Heritage: A Reader’s Companion to the Writers and Their Works, from Antiquity to Present. Edited by Claude J. Summers. Routledge, 2002.
• Sanguinetti, Frederico. “Ratio and Race. On Humanity and Racism in Hegel,” Revista Eletrônica Estudos Hegelianos, vol. 18, no. 32, 2021, pp. 41-80.
• Schwarz, A. B. Christa. Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Indiana UP, 2003.
• See, Sam. “‘Spectacles in Color’: The Primitive Drag of Langston Hughes.” PMLA, vol. 124, no. 3, 2009, pp. 798-816.
• Shaw, Stephanie Jo. W.E.B. Du Bois and The Souls of Black. U of North Carolina P, 2013.
• Somerville, Siobhan B. Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture. Duke UP, 2000.
• Summers, Ian. “Montage of a Queering Deferred: Memory, Ownership, and Archival Silencing in the Rhetorical Biography of Langston Hughes.” Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 63, no. 5, 2016, pp. 667-84.
• Tracy, Steven. Langston Hughes & the Blues. U of Illinois P, 2001.
• ---. A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes. Oxford UP, 2004.
• Vogel, Shane. “Closing Time: Langston Hughes and the Queer Poetics of Harlem Nightlife.” Criticism, vol. 48, no. 3, 2006, pp. 397- 425.
• ---. The Scene of Harlem Cabaret: Race, Sexuality, Performance. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2009.
• Williamson, Joel. “W. E. B. Du Bois as a Hegelian.” What Was Freedom’s Price. Edited by David Sansing. U of Mississippi P, 1978, pp. 21-50.
• Zamir, Shamoon (1995). Dark Voices: W. E. B. Du Bois and American Thought, 1888-1903. The U of Chicago P, 1995.