The Tragic Black Buck: Racial Masquerading in the American Literary ImaginationThe Tragic Black Buck examines the phenomenon, often paradoxical, of black males passing for white in American literature. Focusing on the first third of the twentieth century, this book argues that black individuals successfully assuming a white identity represent a paradox, in that passing for white exemplifies a challenge to the hegemonic philosophy of biological white supremacy, while denying blackness. Issues of race, gender, skin color, class, and law are examined in the literature of passing, involving the historical, theoretical, and literary tropes of miscegenation, mimicry, and masquerade. The narratives examined in The Tragic Black Buck are Charles Waddell Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars, James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and William Faulkner's Light in August. |
Contents
The House Behind the Cedars | 20 |
Chapter 3 | 35 |
Johnsons The Autobiography of an ExColoured Man | 47 |
Chapter 4 | 75 |
The Virulent Nexus of Race and Color | 104 |
Conclusion | 129 |
| 165 | |
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Common terms and phrases
African American American Dream American Literature argues Autobiography becomes behavior black and white black buck black individuals black people's black woman blood Cedars characterizations Charles Waddell Chesnutt Christmas's critical culture death Despite discourse Douglass economic escape Ex-Coloured Man's Fanon Faulkner Fiction foreshadows Frantz Fanon Gatsby's gaze gender George hair texture Hines's individuals who pass inferior James Weldon Johnson Jay Gatsby Jefferson Jim Crow Joanna Joe Christmas John's Light in August literary literature of passing lynching mask masquerade mimicry mirror miscegenation Molly Molly's mother mulatto Negro Nick nigger Nordic novel paradox passing for white protagonist psychological race racial identity racial passing racist ragtime music Ralph Ellison Rena Rena's represents reveals Rowena Scott Fitzgerald sexual signifier skin color slavery social socioeconomic suggests supremacist symbolically tion Tom's tragic tragic mulatto triangle of desire University Press violence Walden wealth white father white identity white supremacy white woman white world women York