Dutchman is a one-act play written by LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka), which first debuted Off-Broadway in 1964, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The play focuses on Clay, a 20-year-old African-American man wearing a suit and tie, and Lula, a 30-year-old white woman, who meet on a subway train in New York City during the summer. Aug 20, 2019 AMIRI BARAKA DUTCHMAN PDF Dutchman: Dutchman, one-act drama by Amiri Baraka, produced and published in under the playwright’s original name LeRoi Jones. Dutchman Amiri Baraka 1964 CHARACTERS CLAY, twenty‐year‐old Negro LULA, thirty‐year‐old white woman RIDERS OF COACH, white and black YOUNG NEGRO CONDUCTOR In the flying underbelly of the city Steaming hot, and summer on top, outside. Amiri Baraka, born Leroi Jones in 1934, is a poet, playwright, novelist, critic, and politcal activist. Best known for his highly acclaimed, award-winning play 'Dutchman,' as well as 'The Slave, The Toliet,' and numerous poetry collections. He lives in Newark, New Jersey.
Contents
1. Introduction: the first presentation of the play and the audience’s reactions
2. Reasons for its success
2.1. The complexity of themes
2.1.1. The representation of the situation of the blacks in the 1960s
2.1.2. The representation of gender and class issues
2.2. Its revolutionary character
2.3. The appeal to a new black consciousness
2.4. The appeal to the society on the whole
2.5. The effect of authenticity
2.6. The autobiographical line
2.7. Its symbolism
2.1. The complexity of themes
2.1.1. The representation of the situation of the blacks in the 1960s
2.1.2. The representation of gender and class issues
2.2. Its revolutionary character
2.3. The appeal to a new black consciousness
2.4. The appeal to the society on the whole
2.5. The effect of authenticity
2.6. The autobiographical line
2.7. Its symbolism
3. Summary and conclusion
4. Sources
1. Introduction: the first presentation of the play and the audience’s reactions
Dutchman was first presented at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York in 1964. As the best Off-Broadway Play it gained an Obie-Award the same year[1] and was made into a film in 1967 which made it widely known.2 Later, Dutchman was internationally successful because of being produced and performed in other metropolises like Paris, Berlin and Spoleto (Italy). Being Baraka’s most widely acclaimed play, which is often regarded as his break through and the break through of African American theatre, it convinces up to now and gives occasion for discussions about its intentions and its historical background. It is titled as […] a triumph of stagecraft, a model two-acter whose economy and handling of pace and denouement were not to be doubted.3
Although the play was generally well received4, it provoked critical controversy amongst its audience as well5. Dutchman was performed for a dual audience. Initially, it played to primarily white audiences until Baraka moved it to the black audiences of Harlem6. For both, it was something new: The white audience was confronted with a new type of black man because up to now they had just known the nigger minstrel who was harmless and acceptable to them because he was de-sexed, trapped in a role which combined self-mockery with an endearing musicality7. The Negro is not presented as a primitive African savage8 anymore. For the black people, precisely for the black non-reading audiences of the lower classes, it was the first time to be confronted with theatre. As differently these two audiences may read the play as differently are their interpretations, criticism and attitudes toward the play. Dutchman had been praised and refused at the same time. Above all it incited indignation because of being interpreted as a white-hating play (Bigsby: 375) with its radical language and its racist attitude against white people. Beyond that it broke the habitual theatre form and presented a two act play far from following the rules of conventional theatre plays.
Now, the question is what it made that successful that it was not only performed in Harlem’s streets in front of a black audience which the play mainly aimed at with its intention, but even internationally for black and white people altogether although it provoked such divergent reactions. Why did it even have the possibility to be performed in front of such a dual audience, that means two opposing social groups, in a time of white racism against blacks? To answer these questions several aspects have to be considered. They concern Dutchman ’s relation to the historical period of the 1960s in the US, its character as a theatre play, more precisely the examination of its form and language, and its intentions for the black and white world and for society in general. This paper will put up thesis about the reasons of Dutchman ’s success which are to be proved.
2. Reasons for its success
2.1. The complexity of themes
When Baraka moved his play Dutchman to Harlem it was quickly labelled as a white-hating play. The interpretation of a black racism against white people is just one, maybe even wrong aspect. Dutchman is thematically working on several fields at the same time which can be attributed to the fact that it was written in Baraka’s transitional time in which he himself was in search for an orientation in the American society but I will come back to that later. The play is concerned with a variety of social issues (MacNicholas: S. 51): racial betrayal9, anti racist sentiments and black consciousness-raising combined with gender and class themes. Empia technology usb 2861 device driver windows 10. Further on, it is about American history (Bloom: 89) and it describes Baraka’s own autobiography (Bigsby: 397) in which he asks the general question of personal identity and the nature of the relationship between the self and society (Bigsby: 375). All these themes are embodied by only two characters, Clay and Lula, who therefore have racial, social and sexual roles in one plot (Bigsby: 399) which leaves his work open to ambiguity (Bigsby: 402).
The following parts will now try to examine each of these issues in detail.
2.1.1. The representation of the situation of the blacks in the 1960s
The first intention which Dutchman expresses is being an evidence of the period. It describes the unambiguous reality of the situation of the American blacks in the 1960s and gives an impression of the American history and politics of that time. Racism as the previous condition was a living death (Berkowitz: 146), so black people were faced with two alternatives, assimilation or revolt10. They had to find new identities (Berkowitz: 146). Dutchman presents Clay who has chosen the first one and who therefore denies his origin. He takes the white world as a model which is expressed by his appearance, language (his mastery of language gives him access to the white world (Bigsby: 397)) and behaviour like numerous other young black people did it. Lula is the one who proves this by saying: “Is Warren Enright a tall skinny black boy with a phony English accent?”11, or “I told you I didn’t know anything about you …you’re a well-known type.” (Jones: 12). Later, she guesses his name and proposes typical black names: “[…] Gerald or Walter […] Lloyd, Norman? One of those hopeless colored names creeping out of New Jersey. Leonard?” (Jones: 15). These examples show how blacks adapt themselves to the white society and how they deliver their own individuality. When Lula says “I bet you never once thought you were a black nigger.” (Jones: 19), it comments on the status which blacks had in America in the 1960s12: they made themselves invisible by ignoring their African origin and took on the protective colour and language of white middle-class America13 which they saw as a disguise because they could not identify with it. Consequently, they lost their orientation and found neither their old ways nor the imitation of white behaviour fully satisfactory14.
The text of Dutchman can be seen as a representation of the black situation. Several evidences represent Lula as the white class dominating the black one. She forces him to assimilation which is expressed by giving him the symbolic sinful apple with which he accepts her discriminating attitudes and denies himself. Regarding the whole dialogue, Lula’s dominance is unmistakable when she dictates Clay what to do and when he cannot do anything but asking questions. In a wider sense, Lula as the white woman dictates Clay white values and norms which he believes to have to assume. In scene two, when Lula describes a fictive evening together with Clay at and after a party, Clay again asks questions about how the evening might go on. Symbolically, he allows her to decide about his life because he is not able to manage his life beyond his ideas because he always has been living under white “control”. In his submissiveness he renounces to use his own power against the white group because that would be his own disaster. Here we see the contrast between white liberalism and the vulnerability of black integration15.
Dutchman is a mirror which shows the black reaction to white racism: assimilation. By means of Clay as a black stereotype, he play shows the inner feelings, especially anger, of an entire black group oppressed by the white one which is in search for their identification. Like Baraka said, “Dutchman is about the difficulty of becoming a man in America.” (MacNicholas: 53).
[..]
[1] Knaak, Alexander: Things have come to that. http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?3296 (31.07.2006)
2 Schlueter, Paul/ Schlueter, June: Modern American Literature. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1985. Resident evil 4 pc ps3 buttons mod.
3 Bloom, Clive (ed.): American Drama. London: Macmillian Press CDD, 1995.
4 MacNicholas, John (ed.): Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol 7: Twentieth Century American Dramatists Part 1: A – J. Detroit/ Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1981, p. 51.
5 Wilmeth, Don B./ Miller, Tice L. (ed.): Cambridge Guide to American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 59.
6Amiri Baraka. www.enotes.com (31.07.2006)
7 Bigsby, C.W.E.: A Critical Introduction To Twentieth-Century American Drama. Volume Three Beyond Broadway. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 375.
8 Boan, Devon: The Black „I“. Author and Audience in African American Literature. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2002, p. 34.
9 McMichael, George: Anthology of American Literature. II – Realism to the Present. New York: Macmillian Publishing Company, 1980, p. 1895.
10 Clay, Richard: Three Negro Plays. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1969, p. 13.
Dutchman Play Full Text
11 Jones, LeRoi: Dutchman and The Slave. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1964, p. 10.
12 Mr Africa: Amiri Baraka. http://www.afropoets.net/amiribaraka.html (31.07.2006)
13 Bigsby, C.W.E.: Modern American Drama 1945 – 1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 280.
14 Berkowitz, Gerald M.: American Drama of the Twentieth Century. London: Longman, 1992, p. 146.
Amiri Baraka Dutchman And The Slave Pdf
15 DLB 38, p. 29
Amiri Baraka The Dutchman Summary
The Black Arts Movement was the name given to writers, black poets, dramatists, musicians, and artists who appeared in the wake of the Black Power movement. The movement was established by Amiri Baraka in 1963, who opened a Black Arts Repertory theater in Harlem. The movement was also provoked by the assassination of Malcolm X. The movement inspired black people to initiate magazines, journals, art institutions, and publishing houses. The black arts movement saw artistic manufacture as the key to re-evaluate black Americans recognition of themselves and was believed to be an essential element of the political, economic, and cultural empowerment of the black community. The movement really brought out a lot of creative artists to write, speak,…show more content…
Clay tried to blend in with the white people around him, in an attempt to be identified and accepted as an equal part of their society, but his endeavor quickly fails. The assimilation that African Americans and Clay tried to achieve only developed in the mislaying of cultural identity. Clay chose to renounce his sense of radical identity mirrored by his death. He resigns himself to assimilation and that is why Lula murders him. Clay’s aspiration to blend in with the white society becomes noticeable in the opening scene. Clay is displayed as a middle class black man who is wearing a nice button-up suit and carrying tons of books. He later tells Lula that his appearance, tie, and suit is an act to cover up his differences from his hatred regarding wealthy white men that is around him. Amiri Baraka uses symbolism in “Dutchman” to carry out the outcomes of assimilation. Lula entered the scene eating an apple, and after she introduces herself to Clay, she offered him an apple as well. This reflects to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, when Eve bites into the apple and offered it to Adam. Once Eve offered Adam an apple, it enhances humankind’s downfall into sin. This can be seen in the result for Adam and Eve in parallel to Clay and Lula. Adam receives the apple and dooms himself, just as Clay did. This is a…show more content…
Race and racism is also a theme that Amiri Baraka displays throughout the “Dutchman.” Race and racism play a huge role in this play. Racial persecution and racist hatred lie at the heart of the “Dutchman.” A person can reflect that back to when Clay is carrying a couple of books, and he wears the attire of a well- educated white man. Lula seems to hate Clay as soon as she sees him, explaining that he is a type a man that she has seen numerous of times. Identity and hidden paths is also a theme in the “Dutchman.” Lula clearly has a lot of issues that is not seen by the visible eye. A person can base this off of how she acts on the train. She secretes her emotions and true feelings through her mysterious games and sense of humor. Clay also plays a role on identity when it comes down to his past, although his secrets are more subtle. Unlike Lula, he composed himself differently and tried to remain more reserved. He built up a wall around him to keep people from seeing his past, even though he is more opened to his past more than Lula. Lula only focuses on other people lives that are concealed in hopes to keep her life hidden and in
Clay tried to blend in with the white people around him, in an attempt to be identified and accepted as an equal part of their society, but his endeavor quickly fails. The assimilation that African Americans and Clay tried to achieve only developed in the mislaying of cultural identity. Clay chose to renounce his sense of radical identity mirrored by his death. He resigns himself to assimilation and that is why Lula murders him. Clay’s aspiration to blend in with the white society becomes noticeable in the opening scene. Clay is displayed as a middle class black man who is wearing a nice button-up suit and carrying tons of books. He later tells Lula that his appearance, tie, and suit is an act to cover up his differences from his hatred regarding wealthy white men that is around him. Amiri Baraka uses symbolism in “Dutchman” to carry out the outcomes of assimilation. Lula entered the scene eating an apple, and after she introduces herself to Clay, she offered him an apple as well. This reflects to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, when Eve bites into the apple and offered it to Adam. Once Eve offered Adam an apple, it enhances humankind’s downfall into sin. This can be seen in the result for Adam and Eve in parallel to Clay and Lula. Adam receives the apple and dooms himself, just as Clay did. This is a…show more content…
Race and racism is also a theme that Amiri Baraka displays throughout the “Dutchman.” Race and racism play a huge role in this play. Racial persecution and racist hatred lie at the heart of the “Dutchman.” A person can reflect that back to when Clay is carrying a couple of books, and he wears the attire of a well- educated white man. Lula seems to hate Clay as soon as she sees him, explaining that he is a type a man that she has seen numerous of times. Identity and hidden paths is also a theme in the “Dutchman.” Lula clearly has a lot of issues that is not seen by the visible eye. A person can base this off of how she acts on the train. She secretes her emotions and true feelings through her mysterious games and sense of humor. Clay also plays a role on identity when it comes down to his past, although his secrets are more subtle. Unlike Lula, he composed himself differently and tried to remain more reserved. He built up a wall around him to keep people from seeing his past, even though he is more opened to his past more than Lula. Lula only focuses on other people lives that are concealed in hopes to keep her life hidden and in