chooses not to include the lyrics to the spirituals, which often serve to underline the arguments of the chapters: Booker T. Columbia University English and comparative literature professor Brent Hayes Edwards writes:

They must be conscious of how they view themselves, as well as being conscious of how the world views them.Įach chapter in The Souls of Black Folk begins with a pair of epigraphs: text from a poem, usually by a European poet, and the musical score of a spiritual, which Du Bois describes in his foreword ('The Forethought') as 'some echo of haunting melody from the only American music which welled up from black souls in the dark past'. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois used the term ' double consciousness', perhaps taken from Ralph Waldo Emerson ('The Transcendentalist' and 'Fate'), applying it to the idea that black people must have two fields of vision at all times. Outside of its notable relevance in African-American history, The Souls of Black Folk also holds an important place in social science as one of the early works in the field of sociology. To develop this work, Du Bois drew from his own experiences as an African American in American society. The book contains several essays on race, some of which had been published earlier in The Atlantic Monthly. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches is a 1903 work of American literature by W.

The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and drawings at Wikisource

The souls of black folk