Jean Toomer’s Cane (1923) is considered to be “a modern black oracle”, documenting the experiences and heritage of the black population in the North and South of post-war America (Duncan 1972). This essay will demonstrate how the overarching themes of racial identity, pride, sexuality and power lend themselves well to feminist and post-colonial critique. With reference to ‘The Writing Back Model’, this essay will examine how Toomer addresses the dominant white culture’s construction of African Americans as the primitive ‘other’ (McLeod 2000). In addition, Beauvoir’s (1993) notion of ‘the second sex’ and Foucault’s (1979) belief that there is a relationship between the body and power will be used to investigate Toomer’s portrayal of black femininity and domestic power. These theoretical frameworks will inform the main objective to explore how “Cane is a subversive text that springs from and yet negotiates the American modernism of its time by redefining it from a minoritarian African-American position” (Neimneh and Obeidat 2015: 1).
As Fahy (2002: 48) claims, gender power relations in Cane are mitigated through “the enslaving power of folksongs”, which serve to preserve the ancestral past of African Americans. However, many of these folksongs are narrated from perspective of men and women have little narrative control (Fahy 2002: 48). For instance, the story of Karintha is repeatedly interrupted by lustful folksongs that portray her as an object to gratify male desire: “Her skin is like dusk,/ O cant you see it” (Toomer 1923: 18-19). With each stanza becoming shorter, Barlow (2014: 201) suggests that the cleansing power of the folksong diminishes, with the narrator’s perspective becoming increasingly rushed and modern. Therefore, despite attempts to maintain a connection to their ancestral past, the black men of the South have become increasingly similar to their white counterparts. This idea is further supported by the fact that the men are not ascribed racial identities and are merely labelled as “young men and old men”. This confirms that “Toomer saw masculinity as universal and biologically determined”— suggesting that there is no correlation between race and sexuality (Curwood 2002: 2). This challenges the initial critical reception of Toomer’s Cane as an undoubtedly ‘black’ text and highlights that “canonized accounts of modernism are troubled by their propensity to create monolithic modernisms as either exclusively white or black” (Debo 2001: 1). Although Toomer uses various forms and styles throughout the novel, Toomer’s reliance on “the subjective consciousness of characters” is unwavering and, as Parsons (2006: 15) notes, “the lack of external commentary” is reminiscent of the novels of Joyce and Woolf. Hence, while the use of folksongs may be distinctively ‘black’, these folksongs merely enhance the stream of consciousness that defines the modernist novel— indicating that Cane is equally as modernist as the work of Toomer’s white contemporaries. Hence, the experiences of black women within the novel may represent a universal perception of women’s bodies as sites for men to exploit and negotiate their power (Foucault 1979). This supports the interpretation that race is unimportant to the female body because— regardless of her sex— the woman is inferior and merely exists to gratify the sexual needs of the ‘superior’ sex (Beauvoir 1993). Nevertheless, with reference to the psychoanalytic philosophy of Fanon (1961), one may argue that Toomer’s belief that masculinity is universal can be viewed as an unconscious desire to view himself, and black men at large, as equal to the coloniser. Thus, the black male is not biologically driven to sexually dominate the black woman as first though but is instead psychologically driven to exercise his power over the few he has control over (i.e. women), because he both detests and admires the power of the coloniser.
Dissimilarly to masculinity, femininity is not necessarily universal within Cane. Though Becky, a white woman, is socially ostracised for having black children, her town still gifts her with land out of pity: “White folks and black folks built her cabin, fed her and her growing baby, prayed secretly to God.” (3-7). Whereas, Louisa, a black woman, must submit to both her white and black lover. Moreover, while Bob Stone is cautious about his relationship with Louisa, he is aware that as a white man, he will face few consequences and will be able to defeat his black rival: “He went in as a master should and took her… No nigger had ever been with his girl.” (3-12). The ubiquitous use of aggressive verbs conjures animalistic imagery and adheres to the conventions of modernism, with “race only bearing on modernism under circumstances where the ‘primitive’ [can] be understood” (Platt 2011: 5). Hodes (1993: 1) claims that white men (and black men) were less inhibited about relations with black women because “sexual liaisons between black women and white men did not threaten the institution of racial slavery in the way that sex between white women and black men did”. Therefore, while the white female is seen as a figure to be protected, the black female is almost stripped of her humanity and denied this same courtesy. Therefore, black feminism, which takes into account inequalities between races, may be more appropriate when analysing such a racially driven text as Cane (Christian et al. 2007).
Nonetheless, many branches of feminist criticism are flawed because there is a tendency to view women as victims that lack complete power (Brabon and Genz 2009). Hence, it may not be entirely true that females lack complete control within Cane. For instance, Avey is able to gain control over the narrator by exerting her maternal power, which is exhibited through active verbs, to silence him and deny him sexual gratification: “She took me in [arms]. And I could feel by the touch of it that it wasnt a man-to-woman love” (83-84). Furthermore, feminist critique often overlooks the struggles of men and suggests that they are always in the position of power. However, this is not necessarily true in Cane because while the black female body is subjected to the male gaze, the black male body is subjected to the violence of white men: “a soul like mine cant pin itself onto a wagon wheel an satisfy itself in spinnin round.” (235). Thus, while feminist criticism may provide an insight into gender power relations, it cannot provide a complete explanation and should be used with caution.
According to ‘The Writing Back Model’, postcolonial narratives are categorised by an active attempt to challenge the hierarchies imposed by the coloniser (McLeod 2000). In Cane, folksongs, creolised versions of English, and silences that are created through codas and breaks in poetry are arguably employed to signify what cannot be represented by the English language and re-establish the African identity (Barlow 2014: 201): “Come, brother… we aint agwine t wait until th Judgment Day” (1-12). This subversion of conventional literary style is distinguishably modernist and repurposes the modernist representation of multiple perspectives on white culture and modernity to a representation of varying perspectives on black culture and modernity (Parsons 2006). Therefore, Toomer indisputably attempts to “write back to” the predominantly white readership of the time and challenge their racial prejudice (McLeod 2000: 25). Nonetheless, this black identity wavers due to changes of narrative voice. For instance, black characters from the North often speak using standard English as well as non-standard forms. Therefore, the ‘Post-nationalist Model, which highlights the importance of hybridity, may be more appropriate when analysing the lexical choices used within Cane (Tonkiss 2017 cites Bhabha 2004). The hybrid identity represents the deep desire shared by many African Americans to not be defined by race (Curwood 2002). This desire arguably stems from the fact that, despite gaining economic power in northern cities and exhibiting their intellectual capabilities following World War I, white America was largely unable to overcome its internalised prejudice towards black Americans and continued to enforce laws and practices that disadvantaged black individuals in order to maintain its own power (Huggins 2007). In addition, there was also tension between black members of northern and southern communities because those that had migrated North were thought to have abandoned their African heritage (Huggins 2007). Thus, Toomer’s alternating language use reflects the overwhelming conflict between the values of the South and the North, and the black individuals struggle to navigate between these two worlds. Most notably, in the poem ‘Beehive’, the image of the bee and the drone symbolises the narrator’s dissatisfaction with the rush of urban life: “And I, a drone/Lay on my back… getting drunk with silver honey” (9-12). The poem’s use of symbolism and the lack of rhythm and rhyme is undoubtedly modernist and highlights the chaotic and uncertain nature of modernity. Moreover, this stream of consciousness evokes a reflective and somewhat sombre tone that is central to the modernist novel. Therefore, Toomer not only “writes back to the centre”, but he also attempts “decolonise the mind[s]” of the black individuals imprisoned in the urban “hive” who had escaped to the North with the hope of achieving greater social and financial freedom. Toomer suggests that modernity is futile and constructs the city as a “waxen cell”, which conjures images of slavery and contrasts to the glorified image of the South: “Wish that I might fly out past the moon/ And curl forever in some far-off farmyard flower” (13-14). This desire to return to the ways of the past is central to the modernist text (Parson 2006).
However, North (1994) questions whether the ‘negro’ dialect employed is restricted to the black population. North (1994: 87-93) claims that the ‘negro’ dialect was popularised by white American authors, such as T. S. Eliot who employed non-standard forms to establish their independence and to challenge the outdated conventions of the European literary establishment— producing art that could now be regarded as profoundly American. During the time that Eliot’s The Waste Land was written, the American literary establishment strongly believed that “the success of the literary avantgarde and the linguistic independence of the United States were necessary to one another” (North 1994: 133). Hence, one could argue that instead of intentionally rejecting white mores and reaffirming the beauty of the African identity, Toomer was, perhaps, influenced by white authors who had now made it acceptable for black authors to uninhibitedly implement non-standard dialects within their work (North 1994). However, this conclusion largely ignores the racial divisions that motivated Toomer to write Cane and, perhaps, overemphasises the influence of white authors in shaping the conventions of the Harlem Renaissance. Therefore, as Locke (1928) argues, instead of “searching for a national soul” as many white writers intended to do, Toomer, like many other black writers, employed ‘negro’ forms as a way of celebrating his artistic heritage (North 1994: 134 cites Locke 1928). This confirms that Toomer is in fact attempting to “write back to the centre” and “decolonise the mind” (McLeaod 2000). Therefore, Cane cannot be exclusively categorised as a post-nationalist text. While Toomer rebelled against racial categorization in essays such as ‘The Negro Emergent’ (1924), in ‘Race Problems and Modern Society’ (1929) Toomer argues that African Americans will not be able to escape this caste system because of the rigidity of economic and political institutions. Therefore, while Toomer’s attitudes may be post -nationalist, the reality in which he lives is not.
Furthermore, Hutchinson (1995) suggests that one should distinguish between high modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, suggesting that texts from each movement should not be approached in the same way. This refutes the influence North (1994) claims white authors and high modernism had on black artists. Moreover, Hutchinson (1995: 119-120) claims that the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance is, perhaps, closer to that of the Latin American modernismo. Like black Americans, Latin Americans wished to rebel against the ideals of the Spanish identity that they no longer identified with and which had inhibited them from self-actualising within the new hybrid world they found themselves in (Hutchinson 1995: 120). “Realism and local vernacular” appear to be central to racial modernist discourse and allow the oppressed artist to simultaneously “write back” and establish their newly found ‘hybrid’ identity that encompasses both ‘the self’ and ‘the other’ (Hutchinson 1995: 120). Therefore, one may argue that the “Post-nationalist Model” and “The Writing Back Model” should be used in conjunction when analysing the attitudes expressed in Cane and other racial discourses because neither model alone can provide a complete explanation of the complex attitudes expressed within these narratives.
In conclusion, while there appears to be many influences upon Toomer’s Cane, one cannot deny the fact that this is an undoubtably ‘black’ text. Toomer’s portrayal of both sexuality and identity are intrinsically liked to the overarching themes of race and blackness. This analysis has revealed that feminist criticism cannot fully understand the complex relationships between race and sexuality. Whereas, post-colonial criticism has greater applications to Cane because it takes into account the racial divisions that feminist approaches largely overlook. This post-colonial focus has highlighted the complex relationship between high modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. While the two may differ, they also share many similarities. Cane repurposes many of the conventions established by high modernism (e.g. stream of consciousness and the idea of the primitive), reshaping them using distinctively ‘black’ language, forms and styles. Thus, Harlem Renaissance writing should not be regarded as ‘the other’ to high modernism.
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