Race, gender and class divisions in Dorothy West’s The Richer, the Poorer. Stories, Sketches, and Reminiscences.

This work aims to investigate one of the most important black women writers of the Harlem Renaissance: Dorothy West. She was one of the latest voices of the Harlem Renaissance in the early Twentieth century, she gave a very significant contribution to African-American literature. Racism, sexism and class divisions are some of the evils that affected the African – American population and are also the main themes that emerge reading Dorothy West writings. She experimented on her skin the consequences of prejudice and discrimination. This work is made up of three chapters. The first section of this thesis examines the slavery question, and the currents of thought and historical circumstances that fueled racism and made it systemic in American life. Since Dorothy West was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance, in this section I tried to highlight the importance of the Harlem Renaissance movement, not only in United States, but also around the world. Discussing that topic, I underlined that the Harlem Renaissance was a multifarious movement that involved not only literary renewal, it was one of the deepest cultural renovation that involved literature, music, visual arts and so on. It is considered one of the most important black cultural renewal. Life for black people during the Twentieth century was not easy, and in this first section I decided to underline how difficult life under segregation was for all of them, and in particular for women, who lived on their skin a double oppression: to be black and to be women. The second chapter of the present work is dedicated to the life and the literary production of Dorothy West. On the basis of the few information about the most important events of her life collected in biographies and works dedicated to the writer, this section aims to give to the reader a picture of the Afro-American writer underlining also her thoughts, her education and her most important works both novels and short stories. And how the main characters of her stories reflect her personal position in the black middle class, with her doubts, her thoughts, the oppression she felt as black woman. The third section closes the present work by analyzing the collection of stories titled The Richer, the Poorer. Stories, Sketches, and Reminiscences. I decided to discuss and analyze some of the short stories of the collection, underlining the main themes, characters, and Dorothy West’s style of writing, the way she built her main characters and the way she discusses her main themes, such as race, class and gender, in particular the role of women in the black middle class. The discussion developed in this work, is based on critical writings, essays, and articles published in review. By reading the writings included in the references section, I decided to shape a literary itinerary that starts from the slavery question, and goes through the history of racism and segregation that affected the black population. I decided to focus on the Harlem Renaissance not only because of Dorothy West but also because it was one of the deepest renovation movements in black history around the world. On the basis of the bibliography employed in this work, I have been able to present the most important biographical events in Dorothy West’s life. I have chosen to discuss the key themes that emerge from reading her writings, such as race, gender and class divisions.