The Racial Discrimination from Romantic Perspective: A Postcolonial Study of Langston Hughes's Selected Poems

Abstract

.Postcolonial literary theory critically studies the cultural, societal and historical analysis and modes of discourse of the people of the colonies in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Third World. Moreover, postcolonial studies deal with  forms of  imperialism particularly the domination of some nations and people by other nations. Thus,"this rethinking of empire has brought the United States into focus as an object of postcolonial [studies]both as a contemporary empire and as itself a postcolonial nation"(Abrams,1960:307,8).African-American studies, however, fit together well with postcolonial studies as it "forms a number of angels interrogates the relations between the west pretty much  the rest of the world in the light of the history or Western expansion and military and economic domination"(Bertens,2001:112).On this basis, it is possible to read  and analyze the African-American literary themes through a postcolonial vision. However, the prevailing theme that most African-American poems tackle in common is the theme of  racial discrimination, but it is rather meticulous to say what  the  poems share in terms of theme instead of mode. The present study aims at examining Langston Hughes's selected poems to judge whether the modes of these poems are romantic or racial and the motive behind this. This will give a better understanding of the personal and the psychological  factors that affected the life of the African-American individual in the heyday of the racial segregation