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''Cane'' is a 1923 novel by noted Harlem Renaissance author Jean Toomer. The novel is structured as a series of vignettes revolving around the origins and experiences of African Americans in the United States. The vignettes alternate in structure between narrative prose, poetry, and play-like passages of dialogue. As a result, the novel has been classified as a composite novel or as a short story cycle. Though some characters and situations recur between vignettes, the vignettes are mostly freestanding, tied to the other vignettes thematically and contextually more than through specific plot details. The ambitious, nontraditional structure of the novel - and its later influence on future generations of writers - have helped ''Cane'' gain status as a classic of High Modernism.〔As of March 2008, there were over 100 scholarly articles on the book at the MLA Database.〕 Several of the vignettes have been excerpted or anthologized in literary collections, perhaps most famously the poetic passage "Harvest Song", included in several Norton poetry anthologies. The poem opens with the line: "I am a reaper whose muscles set at sundown." In 2000 (Arion Press ) published an edition of ''Cane'' with woodblock prints by the artist Martin Puryear and an afterword by Leon Litwack. == Writing ''Cane'' == Jean Toomer began writing sketches that would become the first section of ''Cane'' in November 1921 on a train from Georgia to Washington D.C.〔McKay, Nellie. ''Jean Toomer, Artist: A Study of His Literary Life and Work''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984.〕 By Christmas of 1921, the first draft of those sketches and the short story “Kabnis” were complete. Waldo Frank, Toomer’s close friend, suggested that Toomer combine the sketches into a book. In order to form a book-length manuscript, Toomer added sketches relating to the black urban experience. When Toomer completed the book, he wrote: “My words had become a book…I had actually finished something.”〔Toomer, “Why I Entered the Gurdjieff Work,” Toomer Collection, Box 66, Folder 8, p. 29.〕 However, before the book was published, Toomer’s initial euphoria began to fade. He wrote, “The book is done but when I look for the beauty I thought I’d caught, they thin out and elude me.”〔Jean Toomer to Waldo Frank, Toomer Collection, Box 1, Folder 3.〕 He thought that the Georgia sketches lacked complexity and said they were “too damn simple for me.” In a letter to Sherwood Anderson, Toomer wrote that the story-teller style of “Fern” “had too much waste and made too many appeals to the reader.”〔Jean Toomer to Sherwood Anderson, Toomer Collection, Box 1, Folder 1.〕 In August 1923, Toomer received a letter from Horace Liveright asking for revisions to the bibliographic statement Toomer had submitted for promotions of the book. Liveright requested that Toomer mention his “colored blood,” because that was the “real human interest value” of his story.〔Horace Liveright to Jean Toomer, August 29, 1923, Toomer Collection, Box I, Folder 6.〕 Toomer had a history of complex beliefs about his own racial identity, and in the spring of 1923 he had written to the Associated Negro Press saying he would be pleased to write for the group’s black readership on events that concerned them.〔 However, when Toomer read Liveright’s letter he was outraged. He responded that his “racial composition” was of no concern to anyone except himself, and asserted that he was not a “Negro” and would not “feature” himself as such. Toomer was even willing to cancel the publication of the book.〔Jean Toomer to Horace Liveright, September 5, 1923, Toomer Collection, Box 1, Folder 6.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cane (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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