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Abstract:

In the African American literary tradition, the period of Nadir (1890–1900s) was marked by the flourishing and subsequent crisis of regionalist dialect literature. During the period of transition African American intellectuals are faced with two conflicting ways of self-identification: on a social basis (rapprochement with the white middle class) and on a racial basis (belonging to the Black community, including urban and rural Black lower class). This dilemma lies at the core of Paul Dunbar’s work. Paul Dunbar became the first Black poet-laureate, his dialect poetry and short prose received national recognition. Identity crisis, the leitmotif that runs through Dunbar’s entire work, is due to the contradiction between the genteel tradition and regionalist dialect writing that coexist and collide in Dunbar’s world. Dunbar couldn’t find the third way, an alternative between two hitherto dominant models, being clearly aware of their limitations. Identity crisis and personal drama of the great Black poet marked the dramatic transition that African American tradition was undergoing at the turn of the centuries.