The history of black literature is plentiful in journals and anthologies. This first led to the establishment of a corpus and then to the recognition of a canon. Journals and anthologies picked up on the important interaction between the European or American avant-garde, and black artists and authors. However tensions appeared about the definition and the status of “black literature”, or more widely concerning its role within literature world wide. During the interwar period, The New Negro (1925) and Negro: an Anthology (1934) edited respectively by Alain Locke and Nancy Cunard, profoundly revolutionized the anthological form, and the use of black discourse. Indeed, literature and social sciences go hand in hand, as they combine an encyclopedic aim, employing an orchestral and polyphonic discursive model, most probably inspired by black music.