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    A Study Guide for Countee Cullen's "Incident"
    A Study Guide for Countee Cullen's "Incident"
    A Study Guide for Countee Cullen's "Incident"
    Ebook33 pages22 minutes

    A Study Guide for Countee Cullen's "Incident"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Countee Cullen's "Incident," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 28, 2016
    ISBN9781535826006
    A Study Guide for Countee Cullen's "Incident"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Countee Cullen's "Incident" - Gale

      13

      Incident

      Countee Cullen

      1925

      Introduction

      Incident is one of the most famous poems written by Countee Cullen, one of the most well-known and important figures in the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s and 1930s. It was published in Cullen's first poetry collection, when he was just twenty-two.

      The poem tells the story of two young boys, about the same age, whose eyes lock on each other in a public place: the black child playfully smiles, and the white child seems initially playful too, but then he quickly proves hostile, cutting his counterpart down with a sharp racial epithet. Readers should note that the poem contains a word that is considered offensive, but the language is a product of the racial context of the time period. In a few short lines, Cullen renders a vivid, chilling scene, one that clearly resonated with the poem's speaker for years, into adulthood.

      In 1925, the year that this poem was published in his collection Color, Cullen became a national figure, winning more awards for writing than any black writer had won before. The respect he earned from the literary establishment helped draw national and international attention to the flourishing artistic scene in Harlem, the section of New York City overwhelmingly occupied by black citizens. For a time, thanks to works like Incident, white critics and readers who had marginalized the achievements of black artists came to recognize the intellect and talent of artists like Cullen. Incident may also be found in My Soul's High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance, published in 1991.

      Author Biography

      Not much is known for certain of Cullen's early years—he was secretive about his past and gave different answers about his background at different times in his life. His birth date, May 30, 1903, is generally accepted, but there has always been uncertainty about where

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