The Mulatta Mystique: The Iconography of the New Negro Woman in Harlem Renaissance Literature and Visual Culture

FAIN: FT-51421-03

Cherene Sherrard-Johnson
University of Wisconsin, Madison (Madison, WI 53715-1218)

My project focuses on visual and literary representations of African American women during the Harlem Renaissance. Through my identification of mulatta iconography, I explore the conflicted position of the black woman as both artist and Race woman in the New Negro movement. My study privileges fiction that foregrounds the black heroine's quest for a community that enables creative self-expression. I look to cultural ephemera, including portrait art, film and periodicals, to illuminate the writers' engagement of visual, popular culture. My attention to the artistic exchange between visual artists and writers enables richer scholarly explorations of black femininity in American literature and culture.