Cane is a 1923 novel by noted Harlem Renaissance figure and 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. 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. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Year 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... The Harlem Renaissance(also known as the Black Literary Renaissance and The New Negro Movement) refers to the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. ... Jean Toomer (December 26, 1894–March 30, 1967) was a poet, novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. ... In theater and script writing, vignettes are short, impressionistic scenes that focus on one moment or give one impression about a character, an idea, or a setting. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to everyday speech. ... This article is about the art form. ... For other uses, see Play (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Dialogue (disambiguation). ...

The ambitious, nontraditional structure of the novel - and its later impact on future generations of writers - have helped Cain gain status as a classic of High Modernism. Several of the vignettes have been excerpted or anthologized in literary collections, perhaps most famously the poetic passage Harvest Song, included in several Norton anthologies. The poem opens with the line "I am a reaper whose muscles set at sundown." High modernism is a particular instance of modernism, coined towards the end of modernism. ...

External links

• Introduction to 1968 edition of Cane by Harlem Renaissance author and scholar Arna Bontemps