Cane: the American Adam rekindled

Abstract

<i>Cane</i> is already recognized as the most significant landmark of the Harlem Renaissance, and as one of the first major contributions to black literature. However, critics have neglected to address its similarities to nineteenth-century American literature, and specifically how it continues a celebrated tradition dedicated to penetrating considerations of American identity.

This study attempts to re-focus the critical perspective to illustrate that <i>Cane</i> deserves recognition as a major work of <u>American</u> literature because it calls for an Adamic personality to combat the complexities of the enigmatic American scene. Moreover, the study suggests that <i>Cane</i> belongs among those famous American writings by Emerson, Hawthorne, Whitman, Twain, and Melville because it too investigates the tensions between individuality and social continuity that are so important to an ongoing American dialectic. Finally, the study explains that <i>Cane</i> is in fact worthy of acceptance into the exclusive forum of American writings because ( in Roger Rosenblatt's words) it “is not conceived of in terms of what an individual human being may strive to overcome or accomplish, but rather in terms of where that individual may be spiritually and culturally located.”