{"id":36384,"date":"2014-05-01T20:01:12","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T20:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=36384"},"modified":"2014-05-01T20:01:12","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T20:01:12","slug":"the-hunter-and-the-farmer-jean-toomers-depression-era-masculinist-writings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=36384","title":{"rendered":"The Hunter and the Farmer: Jean Toomer\u2019s Depression-Era Masculinist Writings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu\/index.php\/ameriquests\/article\/view\/135\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>The Hunter and the Farmer: Jean Toomer\u2019s Depression-Era Masculinist Writings<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu\/index.php\/ameriquests\/index\" target=\"_blank\">AmeriQuests<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu\/index.php\/ameriquests\/issue\/view\/8\" target=\"_blank\">Volume 6, Number 1<\/a> (2008)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/anastasiacurwood.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Anastasia C. Curwood<\/strong><\/a>, Visiting Fellow<br \/>\nJames Weldon Johnson Institute for Race and Difference<br \/>\n<em>Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In 1937, after he had written the novel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=11088\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Cane<\/em><\/a>, left the African-American culture of Harlem, studied under the mystic <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Gurdjieff\" target=\"_blank\">Georges Gurdjieff<\/a> in France, lost his wife to childbirth, and married for the second time, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jean_Toomer\" target=\"_blank\">Jean Toomer<\/a> sought to publish a series of essays. The subjects varied, but the most common theme was masculinity\u2014men\u2019s prerogatives, natures, and responsibilities. He theorized women\u2019s temperaments as well, but it was clearly the study of maleness that captured his attention.<\/p>\n<p>Toomer\u2019s interest was noteworthy given the fact that he became ever more concerned with sexuality and gender as he left behind his African-American identity. Toomer did not intend to \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=5864\" target=\"_blank\">pass<\/a>,\u201d as is commonly assumed\u2014he actually wanted to be raceless, or of the \u201cAmerican\u201d race. In his adopted home in the Pennsylvania countryside, Toomer attempted to construct his life based entirely on his masculinity. In Toomer\u2019s opinion, his entire household\u2014his white wife, his light-skinned daughter, and various temporary occupants\u2014was a social experiment in supporting his masculine genius and creativity.<\/p>\n<p>This essay is an intellectual history of Toomer\u2019s self-construction. Using his diaries and published and unpublished writings, I will explain how Toomer saw his own male identity and how, although he had renounced his blackness, his racial identity mediated his ideal of his gender.<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu\/index.php\/ameriquests\/article\/view\/135\/150\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hunter and the Farmer: Jean Toomer\u2019s Depression-Era Masculinist Writings AmeriQuests Volume 6, Number 1 (2008) Anastasia C. Curwood, Visiting Fellow James Weldon Johnson Institute for Race and Difference Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia In 1937, after he had written the novel Cane, left the African-American culture of Harlem, studied under the mystic Georges Gurdjieff in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1196,8,20],"tags":[7311,10098,10099,1996],"class_list":["post-36384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-ameriquests","tag-anastasia-c-curwood","tag-anastasia-curwood","tag-jean-toomer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}