클로드 맥케이 문학의 뿌리-『자메이카의 노래』 연구

Abstract

Claude McKay(1890-1948) has often been thought of as an immediate forerunner and one of the key members of the Harlem Renaissance, so it is impossible to assess the Harlem Renaissance without considering his contribution and influence. Yet we should be careful not to put too much emphasis on the position and role of McKay as a Renaissance writer because such an approach is likely to overlook the complexity and multiplicity of his life and literary world. More than anything else, his life and literary works in Jamaica was closely related with the historical context at that time. In that context, McKay was a historical witness in his poems about Jamaican people including peasants, intellectuals, and emigrants. More than anyone else, he was willing to record, explain, analyse, and interpret the cruelty and bitterness of British colonialism in Songs of Jamaica. Therefore, I think it very important to reevaluate early McKay. So, if judging him based on poems collected in Songs of Jamaica, it is not far-overstretched to say that McKay was one of the writers who gave voice to a wide range of lower-class social types of Jamaican society and furthermore was able to resist, subvert, and modify the norms of Standard English through Jamaican dialect.