Cane is a 1923 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by noted Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...

 author Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. His first book Cane is considered by many as his most significant.-Early life:...

. The novel is structured as a series of vignettes

Vignette (literature)

In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...

 revolving around the origins and experiences of African Americans in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The vignettes alternate in structure between narrative prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

, poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

, and play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

-like passages of dialogue

Dialogue

Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....

. As a result, the novel has been classified as a composite novel or as a short story cycle

Short story cycle

A short story cycle is a collection of short stories in which the narratives are specifically composed and arranged with the goal of creating an enhanced or different experience when reading the group as a whole as opposed to its individual parts...

. 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. 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 Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry

The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry is an anthology of two volumes edited by Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair....

. The poem opens with the line, "I am a reaper whose muscles set at sundown."

In 2000 Arion Press published an edition of Cane in 2000 with woodblock

Woodblock

Woodblock may refer to:* The wood block, a percussion instrument* A woodblock or woodcut is used in woodblock printing, a method of printing in which an image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood, which is then inked, and the image is stamped onto a page* Woodblock graffiti is a type of...

 prints by the artist Martin Puryear

Martin Puryear

Martin Puryear is an African American sculptor. He works in media including wood, stone, tar, and wire, and his work is a union of minimalism and traditional crafts.-Life:...

 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

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 to Washington D.C. By Christmas of 1921, the first draft of those sketches and the short story “Kabnis” were complete. Waldo Frank

Waldo Frank

Waldo Frank was a prolific novelist, historian, literary and social critic. Most well-known for his studies of Spanish and Latin American literature, Frank served as chairman of the First Americans Writers Congress and became the first president of the League of American Writers.-Biography: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.”

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.” He thought that the Georgia sketches lacked complexity and said they were “too damn simple for me.” In a letter to Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...

, Toomer wrote that the story-teller style of “Fern” “had too much waste and made too many appeals to the reader.”

In August 1923, Toomer received a letter from Horace Liveright

Horace Liveright

Horace Brisbin Liveright was an American publisher and stage producer. With Albert Boni, he founded the Modern Library and Boni & Liveright publishers. He published books from numerous influential American and British authors...

 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. 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

Negro

The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...

” and would not “feature” himself as such. Toomer was even willing to cancel the publication of the book.

Structure of the Book

Toomer spent a great deal of time working on the structure of Cane. He said that the design was a circle. Aesthetically, Cane builds from simple to complex forms; regionally, it moves from the South to the North and then back to the South; and spiritually, it begins with “Bona and Paul,” grows through the Georgia narratives, and ends in “Harvest Song.” The first section focuses on southern folk culture; the section focuses on urban life in Washington D.C.; and the third section is about the racial conflicts experienced by a black Northerner living in the South.

In his autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

, Toomer wrote: “I realized with deep regret, that the spirituals, meeting ridicule, would be certain to die out. With Negroes also the trend was towards the small town and then towards the city—and industry and commerce and machines. The folk-spirit was walking in to die on the modern desert. That spirit was so beautiful. Its death was so tragic. Just this seemed to sum life for me. And this was the feeling I put into Cane. Cane was a swan-song. It was a song of an end.”

Contents

First Section:

Karintha
Reapers- poem
November Cotton Flower- poem
Becky
Face


Cotton Song


Carma


Song of the Son


Georgia Dusk


Fern


Nullo- poem


Evening Song- poem


Esther


Conversion- poem


Portrait of Georgia- poem


Blood Burning Moon

Second Section:


Seventh Street


Rhobert


Avey


Beehive- poem


Storm Ending- poem


Theater


Her Lips are Copper Wire- poem


Calling Jesus


Box Seat


Prayer- poem


Harvest Song- poem


Bona and Paul

Third Section:


Kabnis

Critical Reception

Cane was largely ignored during the Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...

 by the average white and African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 reader. Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...

 addressed this in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" by saying, “'O, be respectable, write about nice people, show how good we are,' say the Negroes. 'Be stereotyped, don’t go too far, don’t shatter our illusions about you, don’t amuse us too seriously. We will pay you,' say the whites. Both would have told Jean Toomer not to write Cane. The colored people did not praise it. The white people did not buy it. Most of the colored people who did read Cane hate it. They are afraid of it. Although the critics gave it good reviews, the public remained indifferent. Yet (excepting the works of DuBois) Cane contains the finest prose written by a Negro in America. And like the singing of Robeson it is truly racial." Hughes suggests that Cane failed to be popular among the masses because it did not reinforce white views of African Americans. It did not fit the model of the “Old Negro” and did not depict the lifestyle of African Americans living in Harlem

Harlem

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

 that whites wanted to see.

Cane was not widely read when it was published but was generally praised by both black and white critics. Montgomery Gregory, an African American, wrote in his 1923 review, “America has waited for its own counterpart of Maran—for that native son who would avoid the pitfalls of propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

 and moralizing on the one hand and the snares of a false and hollow race pride on the other hand. One whose soul mirrored the soul of his people, yet whose vision was universal. Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. His first book Cane is considered by many as his most significant.-Early life:...

…is the answer to this call.” Gregory criticized Toomer for his labored and puzzling style and for Toomer’s overuse of the folk

Folk

The English word Folk is derived from a Germanic noun, *fulka meaning "people" or "army"...

. Gregory believed that Toomer was biased towards folk culture and resented city life.

W.E.B. DuBois reviewed Cane in 1924. He said, “Toomer does not impress me as one who knows his Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 but he does know human beings” DuBois goes on to say that Toomer does not depict an exact likeness of humans but rather depicts them like an Impressionist painter. DuBois also wrote that Toomer’s writing is deliberately puzzling—“I cannot, for the life of me, for instance, see why Toomer could not have made the tragedy of Carma something that I could understand instead of vaguely guess at.”

In his 1939 review “The New Negro,” Sanders Redding wrote, “Cane was experimental, a potpourri of poetry and prose, in which the latter element is significant because of the influence it had on the course of Negro fiction.”

White critics who reviewed Cane in 1923 were mostly positive about the novel, praising its new portrayal of African Americans. John Armstrong wrote, “It can perhaps be safely said that the Southern negro, at least, has found an authentic lyric voice in Jean Toomer…there is nothing of the theatrical coon-strutting high-brown, none of the conventional dice-throwing, chicken-stealing nigger of musical comedy and burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

 in the pages of Cane.” He goes on to say, “the Negro has been libeled rather than depicted accurately in American fiction” because fiction typically portrays African Americans as stereotypes. Cane gave white readers a chance to see a human portrayal of blacks—“[blacks] were seldom ever presented to white eyes with any other sort of intelligence than that displayed by an idiot child with epilepsy

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

.”

Robert Littell wrote in his 1923 review that, “Cane does not remotely resemble any of the familiar, superficial views of the South on which we have been brought up. On the contrary, Mr. Toomer’s view is unfamiliar and bafflingly subterranean

Subterranean

Subterranean or The Subterranean may refer to:* Subterranea , underground structures, both natural and man-madeIn literature:* The Subterraneans, a novella by Jack Kerouac...

, the vision of a poet far more than the account of things seen by a novelist.”

Modern Criticism

Alice Walker

Alice Walker

Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...

 said of the book, “It has been reverberating in me to an astonishing degree. I love it passionately, could not possibly exist without it.”

In The Negro Novel in America, Robert A. Bone wrote, “By far the most impressive product of the Negro Renaissance, Cane ranks with Richard Wright

Richard Wright

Richard Wright may refer to:* Richard Wright , African-American novelist, writer, poet, essayist* Richard Wright , also known as Rick Wright, English musician, founding member of Pink Floyd...

’s Native Son

Native Son

Native Son is a novel by American author Richard Wright. The novel tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, an African American living in utter poverty. Bigger lived in Chicago's South Side ghetto in the 1930s...

 and Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison

Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...

’s Invisible Man

Invisible Man

Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published during his lifetime . It won him the National Book Award in 1953...

 as a measure of the Negro novelist’s highest achievement. Jean Toomer belongs to that first rank of writers who use words almost as a plastic medium, shaping new meanings from an original and highly personal style.”

In Popular Culture

The novel inspired the Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron

Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...

 song "Cane", in which he sings about two main characters of the novel: Karintha and Becky.

Book articles/chapters

1. C. L. R. James
   C. L. R. James
   Cyril Lionel Robert James , who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J.R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts...
   
   , Claude McKay
   Claude McKay
   Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and wrote three novels: Home to Harlem , a best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo , and Banana Bottom...
   
   , Nella Larsen
   Nella Larsen
   Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen (born Nellie Walker (April 13, 1891 – March 30, 1964), was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. She published two novels and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, what she wrote earned...
   
   , Jean Toomer: The 'Black Atlantic
   Paul Gilroy
   -Biography:Born in the East End of London to Guyanese and English parents , he was educated at University College School and obtained his bachelor's degree at Sussex University in 1978. He moved from there to Birmingham University where he completed his Ph.D...
   
   ' and the Modernist Novel By: Snaith, Anna. IN: Shiach, The Cambridge Companion to the Modernist Novel. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP; 2007. pp. 206–23
2. Cane: Jean Toomer's Gothic Black Modernism By: Lamothe, Daphne. IN: Anolik and Howard, The Gothic Other: Racial and Social Constructions in the Literary Imagination. Jefferson, NC: McFarland; 2004. pp. 54–71
3. Jean Toomer's Cane By: Petesch, Donald. pp. 91–96 IN: Iftekharrudin, Boyden, Longo, and Rohrberger, Postmodern Approaches to the Short Story. Westport, CT: Praeger; 2003. xi, 156 pp. (book article)
4. Waldo Frank
   Waldo Frank
   Waldo Frank was a prolific novelist, historian, literary and social critic. Most well-known for his studies of Spanish and Latin American literature, Frank served as chairman of the First Americans Writers Congress and became the first president of the League of American Writers.-Biography:Frank...
   
   , Jean Toomer, and the Critique of Racial Voyeurism By: Terris, Daniel. IN: Hathaway, Heather (ed.); Jarab, Josef (ed. and introd.); Melnick, Jeffrey (ed.); Race and the Modern Artist. Oxford, England: Oxford UP; 2003. pp. 92–114
5. W. E. B. Du Bois's 'Of the Coming of John,' Toomer's 'Kabnis,' and the Dilemma of Self-Representation By: Fontenot, Chester J., Jr.. IN: Hubbard, The Souls of Black Folk One Hundred Years Later. Columbia, MO: U of Missouri P; 2003. pp. 130–60
6. The Enslaving Power of Folksong in Jean Toomer's Cane By: Fahy, Thomas. IN: Meyer, Literature and Music. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi; 2002. pp. 47–63
7. Interculturalism in Literature, the Visual and Performing Arts during the Harlem Renaissance By: Lemke, Sieglinde. IN: Martín Flores and von Son, Double Crossings/EntreCruzamientos. (Fair Haven, NJ): Nuevo Espacio; 2001. pp. 111–21
8. Divergent Paths to the South: Echoes of Cane in Mama Day By: Wardi, Anissa J.. IN: Stave, Gloria Naylor
   Gloria Naylor
   Gloria Naylor is an African American novelist and educator.-Early life:Born in New York, she was the first child to Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin. As Naylor grew up, her father was a transit worker and her mother was a telephone operator. When Naylor was young, her mother encouraged her to...
   
   : Strategy and Technique, Magic and Myth. Newark, DE; London, England: U of Delaware P; Associated UP; 2001. pp. 44–76
9. Jean Toomer's Cane, Modernization, and the Spectral Folk By: Nicholls, David G.. IN: Scandura, and Thurston, Modernism, Inc.: Body, Memory, Capital. New York, NY: New York UP; 2001. pp. 151–70
10. No Free Gifts: Toomer's 'Fern' and the Harlem Renaissance By: Boelhower, William. IN: Fabre and Feith, Temples for Tomorrow: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP; 2001. pp. 193–209
11. Black and Blue: The Female Body of Blues Writing in Jean Toomer, Toni Morrison, and Gayl Jones By: Boutry, Katherine. IN: Simawe, Black Orpheus: Music in African American Fiction from the Harlem Renaissance to Toni Morrison. New York, NY: Garland; 2000. pp. 91–118
12. The (Re)Construction of an American Cultural Identity in Literary Modernism By: Ickstadt, Heinz. IN: Hagenbüchle, Raab, and Messmer, Negotiations of America's National Identity, II. Tübingen, Germany: Stauffenburg; 2000. pp. 206–28

Articles on Cane in the collection Jean Toomer and the Harlem Renaissance

(Ed. Geneviève Fabre and Michel Feith, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP; 2001.)

1. Tight-Lipped 'Oracle': Around and Beyond Cane By: Fabre, Geneviève. pp. 1–17
2. Jean Toomer's Cane: Modernism and Race in Interwar America By: Sollors, Werner. pp. 18–37
3. Identity in Motion: Placing Cane By: Hutchinson, George. pp. 38–56
4. The Poetics of Passing in Jean Toomer's Cane By: Grandjeat, Yves-Charles. pp. 57–67
5. 'The Waters of My Heart': Myth and Belonging in Jean Toomer's Cane By: Clary, Françoise. pp. 68–83
6. Feeding the Soul with Words: Preaching and Dreaming in Cane By: Coquet, Cécile. pp. 84–95
7. 'Karintha': A Textual Analysis By: Michlin, Monica. pp. 96–108
8. Dramatic and Musical Structures in 'Harvest Song' and 'Kabnis': Toomer's Cane and the Harlem Renaissance By: Fabre, Geneviève. pp. 109–27
9. Race and the Visual Arts in the Works of Jean Toomer and Georgia O'Keeffe By: Nadell, Martha Jane. pp. 142–61
10. Jean Toomer and Horace Liveright: Or, A New Negro Gets 'into the Swing of It' By: Soto, Michael. pp. 162–87
11. Building the New Race: Jean Toomer's Eugenic Aesthetic By: Williams, Diana I.. pp. 188–201
12. The Reception of Cane in France By: Fabre, Michel. pp. 202–14

Journal articles

1. 'Adventuring through the Pieces of a Still Unorganized Mosaic': Reading Jean Toomer's Collage Aesthetic in Cane By: Farebrother, Rachel; Journal of American Studies, 2006 Dec; 40 (3): 503-21.
2. Stillborns, Orphans, and Self-Proclaimed Virgins: Packaging and Policing the Rural Women of Cane By: Baldanzi, Jessica Hays; Genders, 2005; 42: 39 paragraphs.
3. 'Like a Violin for the Wind to Play': Lyrical Approaches to Lynching by Hughes
   Langston Hughes
   James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
   
   , Du Bois, and Toomer By: Banks, Kimberly; African American Review, 2004 Fall; 38 (3): 451-65.
4. 'Taking Myself in Hand': Jean Toomer and Physical Culture By: Whalan, Mark; Modernism/Modernity, 2003 Nov; 10 (4): 597-615.
5. Jean Toomer's Eternal South By: Ramsey, William M.; Southern Literary Journal, 2003 Fall; 36 (1): 74-89.
6. Blood-Lines That Waver South: Hybridity
   Hybridity
   Hybridity refers in its most basic sense to mixture. The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century. Its contemporary uses are scattered across numerous academic disciplines and is salient in popular culture...
   
   , the 'South,' and American Bodies By: Hedrick, Tace; Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South, 2003 Fall; 42 (1): 39-52.
7. The Race Question and the 'Question of the Home': Revisiting the Lynching Plot in Jean Toomer's Cane By: Edmunds, Susan; American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography, 2003 Mar; 75 (1): 141-68.
8. Jean Toomer, Technology, and Race By: Whalan, Mark; Journal of American Studies, 2002 Dec; 36 (3): 459-72.
9. 'Been Shapin Words T Fit M Soul': Cane, Language, and Social Change By: Battenfeld, Mary; Callaloo: A Journal of African-American and African Arts and Letters, 2002 Fall; 25 (4): 1238-49.
10. Macunaíma e Cane: Sociedades Multi-raciais além do Modernismo no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos By: Da-Luz-Moreira, Paulo; Tinta, 2001 Fall; 5: 75-90.
11. Jean Toomer and Kenneth Burke
    Kenneth Burke
    Kenneth Duva Burke was a major American literary theorist and philosopher. Burke's primary interests were in rhetoric and aesthetics.-Personal history:...
    
     and the Persistence of the Past By: Scruggs, Charles; American Literary History, 2001 Spring; 13 (1): 41-66.
12. Recalcitrant, Revered, and Reviled: Women in Jean Toomer's Short Story Cycle, Cane By: Shigley, Sally Bishop; Short Story, 2001 Spring; 9 (1): 88-98.
13. 'I Am I': Jean Toomer's Vision beyond Cane By: Rand, Lizabeth A.; CLA Journal, 2000 Sept; 44 (1): 43-64.
14. Jean Toomer and Okot p'Bitek
    Okot p'Bitek
    Okot p'Bitek was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for Song of Lawino, a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wishes everything to be westernised...
    
     in Alice Walker
    Alice Walker
    Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
    
    's In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens By: Fike, Matthew A.; MELUS, 2000 Fall-Winter; 25 (3-4): 141-60.
15. Jean Toomer's Cane: Self as Montage and the Drive toward Integration By: Peckham, Joel B.; American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography, 2000 June; 72 (2): 275-90.
16. Literature and Lynching: Identity in Jean Toomer's Cane By: Webb, Jeff; ELH, 2000 Spring; 67 (1): 205-28.
17. Jean Toomer's Cane as a Swan Song By: Bus, Heiner; Journal of American Studies of Turkey, 2000 Spring; 11: 21-29.
18. Harmon, Charles. " Cane, Race, and 'Neither/Norism'", Southern Literary Journal, 2000 Spring; 32 (2): 90-101.
19. The Reluctant Witness: What Jean Toomer Remembered from Winesburg, Ohio
    Winesburg, Ohio
    Winesburg is an unincorporated community in southwestern Paint Township, Holmes County, Ohio, United States. The town sits on the crest of a hill in the Amish country of Ohio, with a quaint downtown containing antique shops. It lies along U.S. Route 62....
    
    By: Scruggs, Charles; Studies in American Fiction, 2000 Spring; 28 (1): 77-100.
20. Kodat, Catherine Gunther. "To 'Flash White Light from Ebony': The Problem of Modernism in Jean Toomer's Cane", Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and Critical Journal, 2000 Spring; 46 (1): 1-19.