Transcript James Weldon Johnson - Harlem Renaissance: Rutgers ENG 368

Autobiography of an Ex-Colored
Man
By
Anonymous (1912)
And by
James Weldon Johnson (1927)
James Weldon Johnson
(June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938)
1) He was an author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist,
poet, anthologist, professor, lawyer, songwriter, early
civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem
Renaissance Johnson and is best remembered for his
writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections
of folklore.
2) 1894- Graduates from Atlanta University
3) 1901- Writes: Lift E’vry Voice and Sing
4) 1904- Joins Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential
campaign.
5) 1906-1908 United States Consul to Venezuela
6) 1909-1913 United States Consul to Nicaragua
7) 1910 Marries Grace Nail in Nicaragua
8) 1912 Writes AUTOBIOGRAPHY anonymously
9) While serving the NAACP from 1914 through 1930
Johnson started as an organizer and eventually became
the first black male secretary in the organization's
history.
10) 1927 Asserts authorship of AUTOBIOGRAPHY, making it
a “Renaissance text”
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Shotgun Overview
The novel, although it fooled many, is not an autobiography, but perhaps what
might be termed the culmination of the genre of the slave narrative in an
anti-slave narrative. This is the case because this faux-autobiography
systematically refuses to take on the “burden of representativity” which is
perhaps the constitutive component of the slave narrative. The novel
accomplishes this by inverting the key tropes and polemics of the genre to
serve alternative purposes. These purposes are, on the surface, to offer a
tragic meditation on race mixing and miscegenation, but when one delves
deeper, she finds a fictional incarnation of the theory of “double
consciousness” that W.E.B. Du Bois in Johnson’s narrator. EX revels not
only in irony, but also in a novel whose very form is a double parody in the
Bahktinian sense (where content stands in dualistic relationship to the
form’s intent). The novel makes an initial claim to be representative of a
race, but continually emphasizes individualism and the malleability of racial
categories and castes.
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Major Themes and Symbols
THEMES
•
Representativity
1)
Individualism v.s. Universal Humanism
2)
Hybridity and Difference in Collectivity
3)
Du Bois’s theory of double consciousness and his metaphor of the veil
4)
Oral and/or “improvisational culture” v.s. Written culture
5)
The dichotomy of black autobiography and white fiction
6)
Self-Awareness and Diasporic Solidarity
7)
Interracial relations and the color line; race, class, caste or all three.
9)
The ethics of “Passing”
10)
Retracing the history of a nascent black nationalism
11)
Travel
12)
“Laws of Nature” and “Laws of Economics”
13)
The inadequacy and/or failure to fulfill Enlightenment Ideals
14)
Passivity v.s. Revolt
SYMBOLS
1)
Music (especially the piano)
2)
The watch
3)
The chain
4)
Literacy and books
5)
Minstrelsy
FIGURES IN THE BACKGROUND
•
Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Olauda Equiano, Toussaint L’ Overture, Fredrick Douglas, and
Alexander Dumas
Invoking and Reworking the Tropes of the Slave Narrative:
The Timepiece and the Trope of the “Talking Book”
THE TIMPIECE “The first object that engaged my attention was a watch that hung on the
chimney, and was going. I was quite surprised at the noise it made, and was afraid it would
tell the gentleman anything I do amiss”
THE TROPE OF THE TALKING BOOK “I had often seen my master and Dick employed in
reading; and so to learn how all things had a beginning: for that purpose I have often taken
up a book, and have talked to it, and then put my ears to it, when alone, in hopes it would
answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.
The Polemics and Objectives of the Slave Narrative
1)
The chief objective of the slave narrative is to demonstrate the common humanity of
slave and master in furtherance of abolition.
2)
The autobiography is presented to the reader in the form of a bildungroman, and the
writing Subject (already at the end of his or her journey) offers an account of his or her
life that is meant not only to testify to his/her humanity, but also to testify to the
common humanity of the enslaved population as a whole (hence, “the burden of
representativity” is, in the slave narrative, key to its polemic). One must equate the
writing Subject with the entirety of his/her race in order for the narrative to function as
effective propaganda.
3)
Almost all slave narratives offer the reader a depiction of the horrors of slavery through,
mostly, childhood eyes (or those of the newly captured slave). The acquisition of
literacy as the child grows--which equates to an ability to read and understand the
Gospel [a common humanity in Christianity]--is also a more than common trope.
4)
Lastly, the adult make a passionate political plea (usually for abolition) using
him/herself as a case example.
Revisiting Johnson’s Du Boisian Allusions:
The Veil and Double Conciousness
1) The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
2) The Notion of the Veil
The veil is first mentioned in Du Bois’s
forethought, and he extends the
metaphor throughout the book. The
veil is a metaphoric film between black
people and white people in America
that obscures the identity of black
people. Du Bois attributes the
confused dual identity of “his people”
to “the veil,” which also makes it
impossible to see themselves as well.
3) The Theory of Double Consciousness
“After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the
Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son,
born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this
American world,--a world which yields him no true selfconsciousness, but only lets him see himself through the
revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation,
this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at
one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's
soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused
contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,--an
American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two
unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark
body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being
torn asunder.
The history of the American Negro is the history of this
strife,--this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to
merge his double self into a better and truer self. ...” (The
Souls of Black Folk)
The Autobiography Mix-Up/Trick
Slave Narratives
The Representational Dilemma of the African American
Author
Preface
Double Consciousness and the Burden of Representativity
PREFACE TO THE 1912 EDITION
1)
THIS VIVID and startlingly new picture of conditions brought about by the race
question in the united states make no special plea for the Negro, But shows a
dispassionate, though sympathetic, manner conditions as they actually exist
between whites and blacks to-day. Special pleas have already been made for and
against the Negro in hundreds of books, but in these books either his virtues of his
vices have been exaggerated. This is because writers, in nearly every instance,
have treated the colored American as a whole; each has taken some group of the
race to prove his case. Not before has a composite and proportionate presentation
of the entire race, embracing all of its various groups and elements, showing their
relation with each other and with whites been made.
It is very likely that the Negroes of the United States have a fairly correct idea of what
the white people of the country think of them, for that opinion has for a long time
been and is still being constantly stated; but they are less themselves more or less a
sphinx to the whites. It is curiously interesting and even vitally important to know
what are the thoughts of ten millions of them concerning the people among whom
they live. In these pages it is as though a veil has been drawn aside: the reader is
given a view of the inner life of the Negro in America, is initiated into the
“freemasonry,” as it were, of the race.
These pages also reveal the unsuspected fact that prejudice against the Negro is exerting
a pressure, which, in New York and other large cities where the opportunity is
open, is actually and constantly forcing an unascertainable number of faircomplexioned colored people over into the white race.
In this book the reader is given a glimpse behind the scenes of this race drama which is
being here enacted,-- he is taken upon an elevation where he can catch a bird’s eye
view of the conflict being waged.
THE PUBLISHERS
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Talking Points
What do you make of the
“Publishers’” paradoxical claim
that this autobiography is “a
composite and proportionate
presentation of the entire race,
embracing all its groups and
elements?
In light in this paradox (and
outside of it), what do you make
of the claim that the thoughts
contained in this autobiography
will give whites access to the
thoughts of “tens of millions.”?
How does these hyperbolic
claims speak to the “burden of
representativity”? How does
this disrupt the traditional
economy of the slave narrative?
What is the chief Du Boisian
allusion at work here? What
rhetorical effect does its
invocation produce?
What do you make of the almost
out of place commentary of the
increase of “passing” in urban
metropoles? What rhetorical
effect does it produce?
Describe the irony at work in the
final paragraph.
“To teach the slaves not to be the slaves of their
archetypes.” Franz Fanon
I
I know now that in the writing of the following pages
I am divulging a great secret of my life, the secret
I have kept guard far more carefully than any
earthly possessions; and it is a curious study to
me to analyze the motives which prompt me to
do it. I feel that I am led by the same impulse
which forces the unfound criminal to take
somebody into his confidence, although he
knows that the act is liable, even certain, to lead
to his undoing. I know that I am playing with
fire, and I feel the thrill which accompanies the
most fascinating pastime; and, back of it all, I
think I find a sort of savage and diabolical desire
to gather up all the little tragedies of life, and
turn them into a practical joke on society.
1)
2)
3)
Talking Points
What is the rhetorical and polemical
effect vis-à-vis the genre of
biography of X’s “divulging the great
secret of his life” in the interests of a
“practical joke?” Does this increase
or decrease his credulity. What is
the effect of this increase or
decrease?
Ex begins in a confessional tone
invoking Rousseau and Heine’s
critiques of Rouseau. How is
Johnson’s refashioning the, arguably,
self-serving/bombastic nature of the
tradition of confessional literature
here? How does this make us think
Ex’s “motives”?
Fire works as a potent metaphor in
this passage that is, in turn, liked to a
decent into the diabolical. What
multiple rhetorical/polemical
strategies might this serve? What
kind of “protagonist” does this
make?
I
I was born in Georgia a few years after the close of the Civil
War. I shall not mention the name of this town,
because there who could be connected with this
narrative.
I have a dim recollection of several people who moved
about in and about this little house, but I have a
distinct mental image of only two: one, my mother, and
the other a tall slender man with a dark mustache. I
remember that his shoes and boots were always shiny,
and the wore a gold chain with a great watch and chain
and the shoes. [….] I remember distinctly the last
time this tall man came to the little house in Georgia;
that evening before I went to bed he took me up in his
arms, squeezed me very tightly; my mother stood
behind his chair wiping tears from her eyes. I
remember how I sat upon his knee, and watched him
laboriously drill a whole through a ten dollar gold
piece, and then tie the piece around my neck with a
string. I have worn that gold piece around my neck the
greater part of my life, and still possess it, but more
than once I have wished that had been found of
attaching it to me besides putting a whole in it.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Talking Points
Ex locates the time of his birth at the
close of the Civil War and at the
beginning of the beginning of the PosBellum “race problem” It is also an
approximate date of birth he shares in
common with Booker T. Washington
who similarly, as do many slave
narratives, obscures names and places
for the benefit of those still living. What
are the multiple rhetorical purposes
served by this parallel?
How does Ex characterize his father?
What is notably absent in the
description and what does this absence
suggest?
We have spoken about the tropes of
slave narratives. How are they, and the
legacy of slavery, invoked and reworked
here? What is the rhetorical
significance of ex’s attachment to the
gold piece vis-à-vis his lamentation of
the hole drilled in it in and the manner
in which it was affixed?
What do you make of Ex’s vivid memory
of his father’s watch in a “dim
recollection”? Is he deploying the trope
of the watch in the same manner as
Equiano? If so, why?
I
I think she must have derived a fair income from her work.
I know, too, that at least once each month she received
a letter; I used to watch for the postman, get the letter,
and run to her with it, whether she was busy or not she
would instantly thrust it into her bosom. I knew these
letters contained money, and, what was to her, more
than money. As busy as she generally was, she,
however, found time to teach me letters and figures
and to spell a a number of easy words. Always on
Sunday evenings she opened the little square-piano,
and picked out hymns. I can recall now that whenever
she played she played hymns her tempos were always
decidedly largo. Sometimes, on other evenings she
would play simple accompaniments to some old
southern songs that she sang. In these songs she was
freer, because she played them by ear. Those evening
on which she opened the piano were the happiest of
my childhood. […]
And so, for a couple of years my life was divided in between
my music and my school books. Music took up the
greater part of the time.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Talking Points
How are literacy and money intertwined in
the opening moments of the passage?
How does this make a comment on the
polemics of the trope of the talking book?
Immediately following the invocation of
“the letter,” we learn that Ex’s mother
taught him his letters and numbers, and
that she also would often play the piano
for him but in two decidedly different
fashions. What is the rhetorical purpose
of Ex emphasizing his preference for
Southern songs over Hymns? How does
his mother’s different styles of playing the
piano figure into all of this (keep in mind
the role of singing)?
What do you make of Ex’s decision to use
the word “bosom”? How does it
metaphorically and vexingly tie Ex to the
letter?
What dichotomy does ex’s preference for
his mother’s Southern Songs and his
preference for music over books invoke?
How does the idea of a printed score, the
literacy of music, vex this dichotomy?
Booker T Washington v.s.? W.E.B. Du Bois
Two Approaches with a Common End
•
Booker T. Washington strategy for racial
uplift was rooted in the project of
increasing the economic efficiency of the
Southern Negro. He had a more gradual
approach as opposed to that of Du Bois,
whose, of course, advocated immediate
and total equality both politically and
economically. For the time period,
Washington saw segregation as de facto
and renouncement of political
incorporation as an effective means to
create a platform for his program of
Industrial uplift. He is famous for his
“Atlanta Compromise” in which he
advocates for economic integration, social
segregation, and the abandonment of
“racial agitation.”
•
Du Bois urged African Americans to involve
themselves in politics. Gaining this power
would be essential to immediate beseeching
of rights. Political association would prevent
blacks from falling behind because when the
Negro found himself deprived of influence in
politics, therefore, and at the same time
unprepared to participate in the higher
functions in the industrial development that
this country began to undergo, it soon
became evident to him that he was losing
ground in the basic things of life (which
necessitated political incorporation and
intellectual refinement). Du Bois also
directly challenged Washington when he
stated that the way for a people to gain their
reasonable rights is a not by voluntarily
throwing them away and insisting that they
do not want them.
I
“You sit down, and rise with the others.” I sat down dazed. I
saw and heard nothing. When the others were asked to
rise I did not know it. When school was dismissed I went
out in a kind of stupor. A few of the white boys jeered me,
saying, “Oh, you’re a nigger too.” I heard some of the black
children say, We knew he was colored.” “Shiny” said the
them, “Come along, don’t tease him,” and thereby won my
undying gratitude.
As I passed through the hallway, I saw that my mother was busy
with one of her customers, I rushed up into my own little
room, shut the door, and went quietly to the looking glass
that hung on the wall. For an instant I was afraid to look,
but when I did I looked long and earnestly. [….] I was
accustomed to her remarks about my beauty, but know, for
the first time I became conscious of it, and recognized it. I
noticed the ivory whiteness of my skin, the beauty of my
mouth….”
“No, my darling, you are not a nigger.” She went on, you are as
good as anybody” […]
“Who is my father? Where is he?” She stoked my hair and said,
“I’ll tell you about him some day.” I sobbed. “I want to
know now.” She answered, “No, not now.”
Perhaps it had to be done, but I have never forgiven the woman
who did it so cruelly. It may be that she never knew she
gave me a sword thrust that day in school which was long in
healing.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Talking Points
Invocations and the refashioning of Du Bois
permeate this entire passage. We certainly see
an echo of Du Bois’s school girl here, but “Shiny”
stands as a figure apart. What do you make of
“Shiny,” and of Ex’s embrace and later betrayal of
his fraternity?
The shock and daze Ex experiences in the first
paragraph bring to mind another seminal text.
What is it? What purpose is served by invoking
it? How does it refashion or reinvoke the
importance of the Christian convert in the slave
narrative?
As Ex’s mother nits something akin to a veil, he
“passes” by here but then encounters himself in
the mirror? What discourse(s) does this
symbolic encounter invoke? How is one of these
further invoked with the idea of a “sword
thrust?”
What do you make of Ex’s anger towards his
mother at this point in the narrative? How does
ex’s desire to know his patrimony complicate all
of this?
Ex’s mother tells him he is as good as anybody
else, but that fails to console him, and only to
make him angrier? What multiple polemical
purposes does this anger serve? What is telling
about the fact that no anger is reserved for an
absent father?
II
And this is the dwarfing, warping, distorting influence
which operates upon each colored man in the
United States. He is forced to outlook on all
things, not from the viewpoint of a citizen or a
man, nor even a human being, but from the
viewpoint of a colored man[….] This gives to
every colored man, in proportion with his
intellectuality, a sort of dual personality; there is
one side of him which is disclosed only to the
freemasonry of his own race. I have often
watched with amazement even ignorant colored
men under the cover of broad grins and minstrel
antics maintain this dualism in the presence of
white men.”
[…]
But I could not rise to the dramatic, or better,
melodramatic climax. Somehow I could not
arouse any considerable need for a father. He
broke the awkward tableau by saying, “Well boy,
aren’t you glad to see me?” He evidently meant
the words kindly enough, but I don’t know what
he could have said that would have had a worse
effect; however my good breeding came to the
rescue, and I answered, “Yes, Sir,” and went to
him and offered him my hand. He took my hand
into one of his.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Talking Points
In the first passage, we have yet another clear
invocation of Du Bois’s theory of double
consciousness, and a near (or playful rejection) of
one of its tenets. In other words, how does Ex differ
from Du Bois (think about how one looks at herself
in each), and what are the rhetorical and polemical
consequences of this refashioning?
The first passage also re-invokes the preface and its
promise of a window into the “freemasonry” of the
Negro race, but in somewhat contradictory fashion.
How so? If this freemasonry depends on the vision
of colored eyes, how does the narrator’s position as
Ex-colored infect his discourse?
Describe the irony Ex’s remarks on minstrelsy? If
this freemasonry is closed to white eyes, what other
options are open to the men Ex so despises? What
does this tell us about Ex’s predicament and to what
extent is he the victim of his own flawed thinking?
Describe the irony at work with the narrator’s
deployment of the term “dualism”?
In the second passage, what do you think keeps Ex
from reaching melodramatic climax? What are the
implications of framing his frustration in
sexual/literary terminology? How does the
descriptions of hands enhance the multiple
polemics at work in the passage?
II
I began to find company in books, and greater
pleasure in music. The former discovery through
a big, gilt-bound book. Illustrated copy of the
bible which used to lie in splendid neglect on the
center table in our little parlor [..] I was
overjoyed to find that it contained an
inexhaustible supply of pictures. I looked at
these pictures many times, in fact so often I knew
the story of each one without having to read the
subject, and then, somehow I picked up on a
thread of history on which strung the trials and
tribulations of the Hebrew children: this I
followed with feverish interest and excitement.
For a long time King David, with Samson a close
second, stood at the list of my heroes; he was not
displaced until I came to know Robert the Bruce.
I read a good portion of the Old testament, all
that part treating wars and rumors of war and
then started in on the New. I became interested
in the life of Christ, but became impatient and
disappointed when I found that, notwithstanding
the great power he possessed, he did not make
use of it when, in my judgment, he most needed
to do so.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
Talking Points
How is Ex re-shaping the trope of the talking book
in this passage and what rhetorical purpose does it
serve?
What is the rhetorical significance of Ex’s affinities
for the Hebrew Children, Samson,King David and
Robert the Bruce? How does this serve as a
commentary on black nationalism?
Ex expresses disappointment that Christ did not use
his powers, when “he most needed to.” What
moment is this in Ex’s mind and how does it disrupt
the traditional economy of Christian salvation?
How does it serve as a commentary on his feelings
about individualism/community?
What do all these examples suggest about how
young and mature Ex’s views on passivity?
Given that we are dealing with a bildungsroman,
how is Ex’s rejection of Christ significant after his fall
from grace (his racial awakening)? And how is it
significant from the viewpoint of the mature
narrator who is in nothing but need of redemption?
Are the significances the same or do they differ? If
the latter, how so?
What do you make of Ex’s fascination with pictures
and Johnson’s decision to have young Ex remove a
photo album to get to an illustrated Bible?
Here, Ex begins to draw a line between a world of
books and music, how does his very narrative vex
the line which he wishes to draw?
II
One afternoon, after school, during my third term, I rushed
home in a great hurry to get my dinner, and go to my
music teacher’s. I was never reluctant about going
there, but on this particular afternoon I was impetuous.
The reason was this, I had been asked to play
accompaniment for a young lady who was to play a
violin solo at a concert given by the people of our
church, and on this afternoon we were to have our first
rehearsal. At that time playing accompaniments was
the only thing in music I did not enjoy; later this feeling
grew into positive dislike. I have never been a really
good accompanist because my ideas of interpretation
were always too strongly individual. I constantly forced
my accelerandos and rubatos upon the soloist, often
throwing the duet entirely out of gear.
She was my first love and I loved her as only a boy loves. I
dreamed of her, built air castles for her, she was the
incarnation of every beautiful heroine I knew, when I
played the piano it was to her, not even did music
furnish an adequate outlet for my passion; I bought a
new notebook, and trying to sing her praises, mad my
first and last attempts at poetry.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Talking Points
Ex sees his inability to successfully accompany the
violinist as both a function of his interpretive
prowess and his individuality (both to which he has
legitimate claim). Nevertheless, he regrets his
impetuosity. He also figures his accompaniment as
an un-welcomed sexual advance. What do you think
Johnson is trying to suggest about African American
creativity and individualism here? Are both
simultaneous possibilities? If so, what is the cost of
this possibility?
Describe how the failed duet serves as a symbol for
and symbolic explanation of Ex’s first love?
What is the polemical effect produced by Ex’s
admiration for “she of the brown eyes” as an
incarnation of “every beautiful heroine I ever new”
vis-à-vis the burden of representativity?
Why do you think Johnson repeatedly invokes the
color brown with “she of the brown eyes”? Why
would Ex find “brown so attractive,” and what might
be the symbolic importance of the nature of this
attraction?
Ex calls attention to himself here, and elsewhere, as
a bad writer, yet his prose is impeccable (in terms of
syntax, grammar, etc.). How doe this effect the
reader’s perception of his tale? Does it invoke
another trope common to the preface of slave
narratives? What is the effect of this invocation?
III
For my part, I was never an admirer of Uncle Tom, nor of
his type of goodness; but I believe that there were lots
of Old Negroes as foolish as he , the proof is that they
stayed on the plantation that furnished sinews for the
army that was keeping them enslaved. But, in these
years, several cases have come to my personal
knowledge in which Old Negroes have died and left
what was a considerable amount to their former
masters[….]
I do not think it is claiming too much to say that “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin” was a fair and truthful panorama of
slavery; however that may be, it opened my eyes to
who I was and what I was, and what my country
considered me; in fact, it gave me my bearing. But
there was no shock; I took the whole revelation in a
kind of stoical way. One of the greatest benefits I
derived from reading the book was that I could
afterwards talk frankly with y mother on al the
questions that had been troubling my mind. As a
result, she was entirely freed from reserve, and often
herself brought up the subject, talking of her life and
mine and of things which had come down to her
through the “old folks.” What she told me interested
and even fascinated me, and what may seem strange,
kindled in me a strong desire to see the South.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Talking Points
What do you make Of Ex’s distancing of himself from Uncle
Tom? What is the rhetorical significance of Ex turning to a
fictional book to prove his misconceptions of the historical
Southern slave?
What is Uncle Tom’s”type of goodness”? And why do you
think Ex disapproves of it especially given that they both
ultimately capitulate to the demands of white society? What
ironies are at work here?
Ex notes that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was assailed a “fiction,” but,
nevertheless, in the second passage refers to the book as a
“fair and truthful panorama of slavery”? What are the metatextual implications of Ex’s observation vis-à-vis Johnson’s
project (keeping in mind the promise of the preface)?
Ex also sees Stowe’s novel as a window or entryway into an
authentic past (in terms of his heritage). Does this give us
insight into a flaw in his thinking? If so, what is it? And how
can we reconcile this flaw with what seems to be, at first, a
good result: namely a closer relationship with his mother?
What do you make of the fact Ex’s reading leads to talking?
And that this talking is really the vehicle for Ex’s intimacy with
his mother and his enslaved ancestors? How does this
complicate, or does it, the binary between written and oral
cultures (keeping in mind, once again, that this is all presented
in a book)?
This intimacy also prompts Ex to head for a South he
ultimately finds disappointing? What do you make of this
fact? To what trickery has he fallen victim and what is the
symbolic importance of its source?
IV
I think that little solitary black figure standing there
felt that a that time and place he bore the
weight and responsibility of his race, (that for
him to fail meant general defeat), but he won,
and nobly. His oration was Wendell Phillips’
“Toussaint L’Ouverture,” a speech which may
now be classed as rhetorical, even, perhaps,
bombastic, but as the words fell from
“Shiny’s” lips the effect was magical.
[….]
But the effect upon me of “Shiny’s” speech was
double; I not only shared the enthusiasm of
his audience, but he imparted to me some of
his own enthusiasm. I felt a leap within me
pride that I was colored; and I began to form
wild dreams of bringing glory to the Negro
race. For days I could talk of nothing else
with my mother except my ambitions to be a
great man, a great colored man, to reflect
credit on his race,and gain fame for myself
[….] My heroes had been King David, then
Robert the Bruce; now Frederick Douglass was
enshrined in the place of honor. When I
learned that Alexander Dumas was a colored
man, I re-read “Monte Cristo” and”The Three
Guardsmen” with magnified pleasure.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Talking Points
Wendell Philip’s oration is a vindication of the “full blooded” Negro in
somewhat bombastic terms. Toussaint L’Ouverture is held out as an
exemplar, and the argument is basically this: Don’t think for a minute this
is was a mulatto (as was the pervasive myth about miscegenation and
slave rebellion) who throgh-out the French (and the cowardly mulattos), it
was a Negro of pure Negro blood. What is Johnson’s purpose in linking
the burden of representativity that Philips assigns L’Ouverture to the one
“Shiny” assigns himself? How does the fact that Philips’s was white
contaminate “Shiny’s” discourse or complicate his position?
Describe the irony of at work in the deployment of the term magical in the
first passage? What kind of Black Magic is it?
In the second passage Du Boisian double consciousness is again invoked
but in an intentionally clumsy way. How does Ex’s doubling differ from Du
Boisian double consciousness? (You will want to think of how ex identifies
with both largely white audience and the speaker).
“Shiny” seems to infect Ex with his speech in a particularly telling way.
How would you characterize it? And how does it inform our interpretation
of Ex’s new preference for Frederick Douglass over Robert the Bruce?
In the two texts by Dumas invoked in the second passage, we have a figure
who embraces escape and revenge juxtaposed against figures who
embrace loyalty and guardsman-ship? Both, though, are committed to
justice and quite far from passive. How does Ex’s embrace of both
exemplify his racial dilemma? How is Ex’s desire to be a great man,
complicated by his retreat from the social into the world of the fanciful?
How does Ex differ from his literary hero’s with respect to the theme of
passivity? How does Ex’s affinity for Dumas--based on a perceived racial
solidarity--put him in or out of line with Dumas as writer (especially is we
take Dumas to be an avatar for his characters)?
Given “Shiny’s” burden and audience what other historical figure does he
invoke, and what are the rhetorical and polemical implications of this
invocation? Does it suggest an inescapable burden, a chosen burden, or
both?
Chapter IV
We went into the street, and in the
passing the railroad station I hired a
wagon to take my trunk to the
lodging place. We passed along until,
finally, we turned into a street that
stretched away, up and down a hill,
for a mile or two; and here I caught
my first sight of colored people in
large numbers. I had seen little
squads of them around the railroad
stations of the south, but here I saw a
street crowded with them. They
filled the shops and thronged the
sidewalks that lined the curb. I asked
my companion if all the colored
people in Atlanta lived in this street.
He said me they did not, and assured
me the ones I saw were of the lower
class. The unkempt appearance, the
shambling, slouching gait and loud
talk and laughter of these people
aroused in me almost a feeling of
repulsion. Only one thing about
them awoke a feeling of interest; that
way their dialect. I had read some
Negro dialect and heard snatches of it
on my journey down from
Washington, but here I heard all of it
in its fullness and freedom.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Talking Points
Conjecture as to the metaphorical significance of Ex’s climb “up and
down” a street on this rather long road.
Remember These plot points: that Ex is headed for Atlanta University
(because he cannot afford Harvard [where his father wishes him to
attend]), and that his train is departing from Washington D.C. What is
the significance of his decision to choose universities based on
economic factors rather than on their potential for his intellectual
betterment? Is it simply a matter of poverty, or does Ex’s decision to
dot it all by himself and in this fashion yoke to him to a certain historical
figure and distance him from another? What this the significance of this
distancing?
What is the rhetorical and historical significance of Ex’s use of the
phrase “little squads of them around the railroad stations”? Does it
point to an awakening to new experience? Is so, is it a clouded
awakening, and why portray it so?
Conjecture as to the significance of Ex’s trip south vis-à-vis (its port and
destination as well as his experiences traveling) vis-à-vis black
nationalism.
When ex first encounters”large numbers” of Negroes he reacts with a
certain amount a revulsion and claustrophobia. He is then “assured”
when finds out they are of “lower class”? What is the polemical
significance of all of it? What does it tell us about Ex’s psyche?
The only ex finds pleasing about the crowd is their dialect. Ex compares
his experience reading and experiencing dialect? What is is the nature
and significance of this comparison? How does it comment of black
nationalism among other things (namely the meta-textual play
happening here)?
Chapter V
The husband who up to this time had allowed the woman to do
most of the talking, gave me the first bit of tangible hope;
he said he could get me a job as a “stripper” in the factory
where her worked, and if I succeeded in getting more music
pupils I could teach a few of them every night, and so
making a living until something better turned up. He went
onto say that it would not be a bad thing for me to stay at
the factory and learn my trade as a cigar maker, and
impressed on me that, for a young man knocking about the
country, a trade was a handy thing to have.
All of this was interesting to me; and we drifted along in the
conversation until my companion struck the subject nearest
his heart, the independence of Cuba. He was an exile from
the island, and a prominent member of the Jacksonville
Junta. Every week sums of money were collected from
juntas all over the country. This money went to buy arms
for the insurgents. As the man sat there smoking his long
“green” cigar, and telling me of the Gomezes, both the
white one and the black one, of Maceo, and Bandera, he
grew positively eloquent. He also showed me that he was a
man of considerable education and reading.
1)
2)
3)
Talking Points
Keep in mind these plots point. Ex has
just been conned, that he way more
upset over the loss of his tie than his
money, that he is locked in a Pulman’s
closet, and that he is now surprised to
find Spanish speaking Negroes? What is
the significance of of each of them?
The husband is a figure associated with
trade and industry and hence yoked to a
certain discourse. What is it and what is
the significance of this tie? What does it
tell us about the changes taking place in
Ex’s thinking? What are the multiple
significance of this change?
Keeping in mind that, at this time, Cuba
had proclaimed itself a “mulatto nation,”
what is the significance of the husbands
most passionate subject? What is the
significance of the fact that his real labors
are dedicated to this end vis-à-vis
nationalism and black internationalism?
V
The “reader” is quite an institution in all the cigar factories
which employ Spanish-speaking workmen. He sits I the
center of the room the large room in which the cigar
makers work and reads to them for a certain amount of
hours each day all the important news news from the
papers or whatever else he may find interesting. He
often selects an exciting novel, and reads it in daily
installments. He must of course, have a good voice, but
he must also have the reputation among the men for
intelligence,for being well posted and having in his head
a stock of information. He is generally the final authority
on all all arguments that arise [….] My position as a
“reader” not only freed me from the rather monotonous
work of rolling cigars, and gave me something
considerably more in accord with my taste, but also
added considerable income.
Talking Points
1)
2)
3)
4)
What is the role of the written in
this selection? What does literacy
bring with it? What is the
rhetorical, political and polemical
significance of this literacy?
What is the significance of Ex’s
quick acquisition of Spanish and
its association with his musical
ear invoked just prior to this
passage vis-a-vis the pervasive
novel’s pervasive binary of
orality/literacy?
Do Ex’s satisfaction at his newly
acquired status and his increased
prosperity point to discourses
we’ve already discussed and what
is the significance of this? Does it
invoke new ones? Does does this
satisfaction suggest about the
ever-changing variable “X” (I.e.
where is Ex now in him numerous
vacillations?
What is the rhetorical effect
produced by placing the term
“reader” in quotation marks?
V
Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance at
Church I became acquainted with the best class of people in Jacksonville.
This was really my entrance into the race. It was my initiation into what I
have termed the freemasonry of the race. I had formulated a theory of
what it was to be colored, now I was getting the practice. […] And of the
many impressions which came to me then I have realized the full import
only within the past few years, since I have knowledge of men and
history, a fuller comprehension of the the tremendous struggle which is
going on between the races in the South.
It id s struggle, for though the black man fights passively he nevertheless
fights, and his passive resistance is more effective and present […]
It is a struggle, for though the white man of the south may be too proud to
admit it, he is nevertheless, using in contest his best energies; he is
devoting the better part of his thought and endeavor. The South to-day
stands panting and breathless at his exertions.
And how the scene of the struggle had shifted! The battle was first waged
over the right of the Negro to be classed a human being with a soul.
Later, as to whether he had sufficient intellect to master even the
rudiments of learning, and to-day it is being fought over his social
recognition.
I said that somewhere in the early part of this narrative that because the
colored man looked at his relationship to society as a colored man, and
because most of his efforts ran through the narrow channel bounded by
his rights and wrongs, it was to wondered at that he has progressed so
broadly as he has. The same can be said of the white man of the south:
most of his mental efforts run through one narrow channel; his life as a
man and citizen.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Talking Points
Here we encounter freemasonsy of
the race and they are, measurably,
upper-class. What is the
significance of this? What is the
significance of the fact that it is
Ex’s acceptance into this collective
vis-à-vis his later assertion that this
is where he “Iearned to be careless
about money,” a carelessness that
lead to his abandonment of Atlanta
University?
What is the rhetorical effect
produced by Ex’s “absolutely
irregular” attendance of Church
and what are its multiple
significances?
Here, Ex confesses of his first time
being introduced to the
“tremendous struggles” between
races in the s=South? What is the
significance of this if we take his as
sincere? Or as Trickster?
Multiple discourses for racial uplift
are invoked? What are they and
what is the significance of their
vexed interplay in Ex’s thinking on
matters racial.?
V
This was the cakewalk in its original form, and it is what
the colored performers on the theatrical stage
developed into prancing movements now known all
over the world, and which some Parisian critics
pronounced the acme of poetic motion.
There are a great many people ashamed of the cake walk,
but I think they ought to be proud of it. It is my
opinion that the colored people of this country have
done four things which refute the oft advanced
theory of the inferiority of the race, which
demonstrate that they have originality and artistic
conception; and what is more, the power of creating
that which can appeal. The first of these are the
Uncle Remus stories by Joel chandler Harris, the
Jubilee songs, to which the Fisk singers made public
and the skilled musicians of both America and Europe
listen. The other two are ragtime and the cake walkwalk. No one who has traveled can question the
world conquering influence of ragtime; and I do not
think it would be an exaggeration to say to say that in
Europe the United States is popularly known better
by ragtime than by anything else it has produced in a
generation.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Talking Points
What are the multiple rhetorical
significance of Ex’s statement “This was
the cakewalk in its original form [….]
Ex’s statement about Paris is true. How
does the pride that Ex take in this fact
provide a commentary (or does it) on
black internationalism? If this is a black
internationalism at work, what kind is it?
How does his pride comment on his
values vis-à-vis such a collective?
Given all this, describe the unstable irony
of Ex’s pride in the contributions of
“colored people”
What is the significance of the hybridity
of every achievement in which Ex takes
pride? What is its significance vis-à-vis
the themes and black nationalism and
internationalism?
What is the rhetorical significance of the
phrase conquered here vis-à-vis these
same themes?
Defining and Redefining the Mulatto
Census, The Tragic Mulatto(a), The Revolutionary Mulatto, the Literary
Mulatto(a)
1)
2)
3)
"Mulatto" was an official census category until 1930. In the south of
the country, mulattos inherited slave status if their mother was a
slave, although in Spanish and French-influenced areas of the South
prior to the Civil War (particularly in New Orleans), a number of
mulattos were also free and slave-owning. During the years 1700 –
1800, the term mulatto represented a American Indian child ; it was
not used to represent mixed ancestry . The definition changed after
the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1868.
Lydia Maria Child introduced the literary character that we call the
tragic mulatto in two short stories: "The Quadroons" (1842) and
"Slavery's Pleasant Homes" (1843). She portrayed this light skinned
woman as the offspring of a White slaveholder and his Black female
slave. This mulatto's life was indeed tragic. She was ignorant of both
her mother's race and her own. She believed herself to be White
and free. Her heart was pure, her manners impeccable, her language
polished, and her face beautiful. Her father died; her "negro blood"
discovered, she was remanded to slavery, deserted by her White
lover, and died a victim of slavery and White male violence. A similar
portrayal of the near-White mulatto appeared in Clotel (1853), a
novel written by Black abolitionist William Wells Brown. Hughes’s
friend and contemporary, Nella Larsen, brought the tragic mulatto to
the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance in her novel “Quicksand”
with the tragic fate of the novel’s heroine, Helga Crane.
In Southern Plantation culture, the mulatto—especially when
educated--was commonly associated with rebellion and revolt.
Nearly all Southern slave revolts (whether it was the case or not)
were blamed on mulatto agitation. The theory behind the
stereotype was simple: “pure-blood” Negroes lacked the intelligence
to coordinate a revolt.
Clotel: Passing and Passing out of the Slave Narrative:
The English. French, the Mulatto Nation, and the Discourse of The Tragic
Mulatto/a
•
Thus died Clotel, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, a president of the United States; a
man distinguished as the author of the Declaration of American Independence, and one of
the first statesmen of that country.
•
The fairness of Clotel's complexion was regarded with envy as well by the other servants
as by the mistress herself. This is one of the hard features of slavery. To-day the
woman is mistress of her own cottage; to-morrow she is sold to one who aims to make her
life as intolerable as possible. And be it remembered, that the house servant has the
best situation which a slave can occupy. Some American writers have tried to make the
world believe that the condition of the labouring classes of England is as bad as the
slaves of the United States. The English labourer may be oppressed, he may be cheated,
defrauded, swindled, and even starved; but it is not slavery under which he groans. He
cannot be sold; in point of law he is equal to the prime minister. "It is easy to
captivate the unthinking and the prejudiced, by eloquent declamation about the oppression
of English operatives being worse than that of American slaves, and by exaggerating the
wrongs on one side and hiding them on the other. But all informed and reflecting minds,
knowing that bad as are the social evils of England, those of Slavery are immeasurably
worse." But the degradation and harsh treatment that Clotel experienced in her new home
was nothing compared with the grief she underwent at being separated from her dear child.
Taken from her without scarcely a moment's warning, she knew not what had become of her.
The deep and heartfelt grief of Clotel was soon perceived by her owners, and fearing that
her refusal to take food would cause her death, they resolved to sell her. Mr. French
found no difficulty in getting a purchaser for the quadroon woman, for such are usually
the most marketable kind of property. Clotel was sold at private sale to a young man for
a housekeeper; but even he had missed his aim.
Rousseau’s Confessions, Heine, and Dostoevsky
1) The Confessions was one of the first autobiographies in which an individual wrote of his own life mainly in terms of his
worldly experiences and personal feelings. Rousseau recognized the unique nature of his work; it opens with the famous
words:
I have resolved on an enterprise which has no precedent, and which, once complete, will have no imitator. My purpose is
to display to my kind a portrait in every way true to nature, and the man I shall portray will be myself.
2) The Confessions is also noted for its detailed account of Rousseau's more humiliating and shameful moments.
3) In addition, Rousseau explains the manner in which he disposes of his five illegitimate children, whom he had with his
world-wide known companion, Therese Levasseur.
4) I may have supposed that certain, which I only knew to be probable, but have never asserted as truth, a conscious
falsehood. Such as I was, I have declared myself; sometimes vile and despicable, at others, virtuous, generous and
sublime; even as thou hast read my inmost soul: Power eternal! assemble round thy throne an innumerable throng of my
fellow-mortals, let them listen to my confessions, let them blush at my depravity, let them tremble at my sufferings; let
each in his turn expose with equal sincerity the failings, the wanderings of his heart, and, if he dare, aver, I was better
than that man
5) Heinrich Heine's strongly critiqued Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions: the French philosopher, Heine asserts, made
himself out to be a monster who consigned his natural children to an orphanage to suppress an even nastier truth,
namely that the children were not his in the first place. Better a monster than a cuckold, thought Rousseau.
The Romance Novel and the National Project
1) The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western Culture, mainly in
English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the
relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally
satisfying and optimistic ending.“ Separate from their type, a romance novel can
exist within one of many subgenres, including contemporary, historical, science
fiction and paranormal. One of the earliest romance novels was Samuel
Richardson’s popular 1740 novel Pamela. Or Virtue Rewarded which was
revolutionary on two counts: it focused almost entirely on courtship and did so
entirely from the perspective of a female protagonist.
2) vis-à-vis the novel and nationalism: The successful marriage of the romantic duo
connotes favor for the national issue in question, nd it its failure represnts a rejection
of the same. ]
The Sentimental Novel
1)The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18thh century literary genre which celebrates the
emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility.
2) Sentimental novels relied heavily on emotional response both from their readers and characters.
3) They feature scenes of distress and tenderness, and the plot is arranged to advance emotions rather
than action.
4) The result is a valorization of "fine feeling," displaying the characters as a model for refined, sensitive
emotional effect. The ability to display feelings was thought to show character and experience, and to
shape social life and relations.
5) These novels commonly featured individuals who were prone to sensibility, often weeping, fainting,
feeling weak, or having fits in reaction to an emotionally moving experience.
5) Sentimental novels gave rise to the subgenre of domestic fiction the early eighteenth century, commonly
called conduct novels. The story's hero in domestic fiction is generally set in a domestic world and centers on
a woman going through various types of hardship, and who is juxtaposed with either a foolish and passive or
a woefully undereducated woman. The contrast between the heroic woman's actions and her foil's is meant
to draw sympathy to the character's plight and to instruct them about expected conduct of women. The
domestic novel uses sentimentalism as a tool to convince readers of the importance of its message.
6) Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility s most often seen as a satire of the sentimental novel“ that works by y
juxtaposing Enlightenment values (sense, reason) with and those of the later Romantic eighteenth century
(sensibility, feeling).
The Byronic Hero
The Byronic hero is an idealized but flawed character exemplified in the life and writings, of Lord Byron characterised by his exlover The Byronic hero first appears in Byron's semi-autobiogrphical epic narrative poem Child Harold’s Pilgramagae 18121818).
The Byronic hero typically exhibits several of the following characteristics:
a strong sense of arrogance
high level of intelligence and perception
cunning and able to adapt
suffering from an unnamed crime
a troubled past
sophisticated and educated
self-critical and introspective
mysterious, magnetic and charismatic
struggling with integrity
power of seduction and sexual attraction
social and sexual dominance
emotional conflicts, bipolar tendencies, or modiness,
a distaste for social institutions and norms
being an exile, and outcast, or an outlaw
"dark" attributes not normally associated with a hero
disrespect of rank and privilege
has seen the world
jaded, world-weary
cynicism
self-destructive behaviour
a good heart in the end
The Gothic Novel and The Female
Gothic
1) The Gothic novel's story occurs in a distant time and place, often Medieval or Renaissance Europe
(especially Italy and Spain), and involved the fantastic exploits of a virtuous heroine imperiled by dark,
tyrannical forces beyond her control. The first Gothic novel is Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Orlanto
(1764), but its most famous and popular practitioner was Anne Radcliffe
2) The notion of the sublime is central to the Gothic Novel. Eighteenth-century aesthetic theory,
following Edmund Burke, held that the sublime and the beautiful were juxtaposed. The sublime was
awful (awe-inspiring) and terrifying while the beautiful was calm and reassuring.
3) The characters and landscapes of the Gothic rest almost entirely within the sublime, with the heroine
serving as the great exception. The “beautiful” heroine’s susceptibility to supernatural elements,
integral to these novels, both celebrates and problematizes what came to be seen as hyper-sensibility.
4) Gothic and sentimental novels are considered a form of popular fiction, reaching their height of
popularity in the late 18th Century. They reflected a popular shift from Neoclassical ideals of order and
reason to Romantic ideals emotion and imagination.
5) The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary
pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel.
6) Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the
supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses, darkness, death, decay madness, hereditary secrets.
7) The stock characters of Gothic fiction include tyrants, villains, maniacs, bandits, Byronic heroes,
persecuted maidens, madwomen, demons, angels, ghosts, monks, nuns, and the devil. perception of
the genre as inferior, formulaic, and stereotypical. Among other elements, Ann Radcliffe introduced the
brooding figure of the gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero.
Sentimentality and Sensibility
1) Sentimentality is both a literary device used to induce a tender emotional response disproportionate to the
situation,[and thus to substitute heightened and generally uncritical feeling for normal ethical and intellectual
judgments, and a heightened reader response willing to invest previously prepared emotions to respond
disproportionately to a literary situation.
2) Sensibility refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another.
This concept emerged in eighteenth-century Britain, and was closely associated with studies of sense perception as
the means through which knowledge is gathered. 2) It also became associated with sentimental moral philosophy.
One of the first of such texts would be John Lockes’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), where he says, "I
conceive that Ideas in the Understanding, are coeval with Sensation; which is such an Impression or Motion, made in
some part of the Body, as makes it be taken notice of in the Understanding”
2A) Although it originated in philosophical and scientific writings, sensibility became an English-language literary
movement, particularly in the then-new genre of the novel
2B) If one were especially sensible, one might react this way to scenes or objects that appear insignificant to others.
This reactivity was considered an indication of a sensible person's ability to perceive something intellectually or
emotionally stirring in the world around them.
2C) In the last decades of the eighteenth century, anti-sensibility thinkers often associated the emotional volatility of
sensibility with the exuberant violence of the French Revolution, and in response to fears of revolution coming to
Britain, sensible figures were coded as anti-patriotic or even politically subversive.
VI
Then he began to play: and such playing I stopped talking to
listen. It as music of a kind I had never heard before. It
was music that demanded physical response, patting of
the e feet, drumming of the fingers, or nodding of the
head in time with the beat. The barbaric harmonies, the
audacious resolutions often consisting of an abrupt jump
from one key to another, the intricate rhythms in, which
the accents fell in the most unexpected places, but in
which the beat was never lost, produced a most curious
effect. And too, the player--the dexterity of his left hand
in making rapid runs and jumps was little short of
marvelous; and, with his right hand, he frequently swept
half the the keyboard with clean cut chromatics which he
fitted nicely as to never to fail to arouse in his listeners a
sort of pleasant surprise, and t he accomplishment of the
feat.
This was ragtime music, then a novelty in New York, and just
growing to be rage which had not yet subsided.. It was
originated in the questionable resorts about Memphis
and St. Louis by negro piano players, who knew no more
the theory of music than they did the theory of the
universe, but were guided by natural instinct and talent.
American musicians, instead of investigating ragtime, attempt
to ignore it or dismiss with a contemptuous word [….[
whatever is popular is spoken of as not worth the while
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Talking Points
Keep in this mind and conjecture on its
significance: It is Ex’s social and
economic failure that lead him to
Harlem.
What is the rhetorical use of the
phrase “barbaric” vis-à-vis both its
juxtaposition to the “lower” and
the”left” and the discourse of
primitivism.
What is the rhetoricsl and polemical
fact of Ex’s obscuring the origins of
ragtime?
Here, Ex remarks on the ragtime
players prowess with respect to “talent
and instinct” while inferring an
ignorance of theory. What is the
significance of this inference? How
does inform our perception of Ex’s
discovery of ragtime?
What are the the significances of
invoking European opinion here?
VII
•
For several weeks longer I was in a
troubled state of mind. Added to the fact that I
was loath to leave my good friend, was the
weight of the question he had aroused in my
mind, whether I was not making a fatal
mistake. I suffered more than one sleepless
night during that time. Finally, I settled the
question on purely selfish grounds, in
accordance with my “millionaire’s”
philosophy. I argued that music offered me a
better future than anything else I had any
knowledge of, and, in opposition to my
friend’s opinion, that I should have greater
chances of attracting attention as a colored
composer than as a white one. But I must own
that I also felt stirred by an unselfish desire to
voice all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and
ambitions of the American Negro, in classic
musical form.
1)
2)
3)
Talking Points
How does EX articulate his
desire to his millionaire
friends, and how does this
articulation differ from, the
he gives himself (purely
selfish grounds)?
Contextualize the
metaphorical significance of
Ex’s trip South in terms of its
goals its assumption, and the
discourse for racial uplift it
invokes vis-a-vis its
purported goals and the
theme of individualism?.
Contextualize the
metaphorical significance of
the confidence game that Ex
is playing in this passage.
IX
Looking hardly a day older than when I had seen him some ten years
before. What a strange coincidence! What should I say to him?
1)
What would he say to me? Before I had recovered from my first
surprise there came another shock in the realization that the beautiful,
tender girl at my side was my sister
The beauty in and about London is entirely different from that in and
about Paris; and I could not but admit that the beauty of the French
2)
city seemed hand-made, artificial, as though set up for the
photographer’s camera, everything nicely adjusted so as not to spoil
the picture; while that of the English city was rugged, natural and
fresh.
How these two cities typify the two peoples who built
them! Even the sound of their names expresses a certain racial
difference. Paris is the concrete expression of the gayety, regard for
symmetry, love of art and, I might well add, of the morality of the
French people. London stands for the conservatism, the solidarity,
the utilitarianism and, I might well add, the hypocrisy of the AngloSaxon. It may sound odd to speak of the morality of the French, if
not of the hypocrisy of the English; but this seeming paradox
impressed me as a deep truth. I saw many things in Paris which were
immoral according to English standards, but the absence of hypocrisy,
the absence of the spirit to do the thing if it might only be done in
secret, robbed these very immoralities of the damning influence of the
same evils in London.
.
Talking Points
Here two tropes from the slave
narrative genre concerning London
and France are re-fashioned? What
are they, and what is the
significance of this refashioning?
In light of this, what are the multiple
ironies at work in Ex’s affinity for
London and his viewpoints on both
cities?
IX
One night I went to hear ‘Faust.’ I got into my seat
just as the lights went down for the first act. At the
end of the act I noticed that my neighbor on the left
was a young girl. I cannot describe her either as to
feature, color of her hair, or of her eyes; she was so
young, so fair, so ethereal, that I felt to stare at her
would be a violation; yet I was distinctly conscious
of her beauty. During the intermission she spoke
English in a low voice to a gentleman and a lady
who sat in the seats to her left, addressing them as
father and mother. I held my programme as though
studying it, but listened to catch every sound of her
voice. Her observations on the performance and the
audience were so fresh and naive as to be almost
amusing. I gathered that she was just out of school,
and that this was her first trip to Paris. I
occasionally stole a glance at her, and each time I
did so my heart leaped into my throat. Once I
glanced beyond to the gentleman who sat next to
her. My glance immediately turned into a stare.
Yes, there he was, unmistakably, my father.
1)
2)
3)
Talking Points
Why invoke CLOTEL at this moment
of recognition so carefully
orchestrated. What inversions are
at work? How does Ex’s
nonchalance afterwards play into all
of this?
What are the metatextual
implications of Johnson’s liking of
his work to Brown’s?
What us the symbolic importance of
“Faust” in this scene?
Clotel: Passing and Passing out of the Slave Narrative: Recognition
•
AT length the news of the approaching marriage of
Horatio met the ear of Clotel. Her head grew
dizzy, and her heart fainted within her; but, with
a strong effort at composure, she inquired all the
particulars, and her pure mind at once took its
resolution. Horatio came that evening, and though
she would fain have met him as usual, her heart
was too full not to throw a deep sadness over her
looks and tones. She had never complained of his
decreasing tenderness, or of her own lonely hours;
but he felt that the mute appeal of her heartbroken looks was more terrible than words. He
kissed the hand she offered, and with a
countenance almost as sad as her own, led her to a
window in the recess shadowed by a luxuriant
passion flower. It was the same seat where they
had spent the first evening in this beautiful
cottage, consecrated to their first loves. The
same calm, clear moonlight looked in through the
trellis. The vine then planted had now a
luxuriant growth; and many a time had Horatio
fondly twined its sacred blossoms with the glossy
ringlets of her raven hair.
X
In a previous chapter I spoke of social life among colored people; so there is
no need to take it up again here. But there is one thing I did not mention: among
Negroes themselves there is the peculiar inconsistency of a color question. Its
existence is rarely admitted and hardly ever mentioned; it may not be too strong a
statement to say that the greater portion of the race is unconscious of its influence; yet
this influence, though silent, is constant. It is evidenced most plainly in marriage
selection; thus the black men generally marry women fairer than themselves; while, on
the other hand, the dark women of stronger mental endowment are very often married
to light-complexioned men;’ the effect is a tendency toward lighter complexions,
especially among the more active elements in the race. Some might claim that this is a
tacit admission of colored people among themselves of their own inferiority judged by
the color line. I do not think so. What I have termed an inconsistency is, after all,
most natural; it is, in fact, a tendency in accordance with what might be called an
economic necessity. So far as racial differences go, the United States puts a greater
premium on color, or better, lack of color, than upon anything else in the world. To
paraphrase, “Have a white skin, and all things else may be added unto you.” I have
seen advertisements in newspapers for waiters, bell boys or elevator men, which read,
“Light colored man wanted.” It is this tremendous pressure which the sentiment of the
country exerts that is operating on the race. There is involved not only the question of
higher opportunity, but often the question of earning a livelihood; and so I say it is not
strange, but a natural tendency. nor is it any more a sacrifice of self respect that a
black man should give to his children every advantage he can which complexion of the
skin carries, than that of the new or vulgar rich should purchase for their children the
advantages which ancestry, aristocracy, and social position carry. I once heard a
colored man sum it up in these words, “It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very
inconvenient.”
Washington shows the Negro not only at his best, but also at his worst. As I
drove around with the doctor, he commented rather harshly on those of the latter class
which we saw. He remarked: “You see those lazy, loafing, good-for-nothing darkies,
they’re not worth digging graves for; yet they are the ones who create impressions of
the race for the casual observer. It’s because they are always in evidence on the street
corners, while the rest of us are hard at work, and you know a dozen loafing darkies
make a bigger crowd and a worse impression in this country than fifty white men of
the same class. But they ought not to represent the race. We are the race, and the race
ought to be judged by us, not by them. Every race and every nation is judged by the
best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.”
1)
2)
3)
4)
Talking Points
Ex frames his predicament, in this
passage, as one of economic
necessity and economic
advantage? What are the multiple
significances of this framing and
how is it accomplished?
Ex quotes from Dubois at the end
of this passage. What rhetorical
effect does it produce? How does
it comment on Du Bois’s notion of
the talented tenth?
Explicate the multiply symbolic
importance of Washington in this
scene.
Marriage and the National
Commentary
IX
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Well,” replied the Texan, “anything – no country at all is better than having niggers over
you. But anyhow, the war was fought and the niggers were freed; for it’s no use beating
around the bush, the niggers, and not the Union, was the cause of it; and now do you believe
that all the niggers on earth are worth the good white blood that was spilt? You freed the
nigger and you gave him the ballot, but you couldn’t make a citizen out of him. he don’t
know what he’s voting for, and we buy ‘em like so many hogs. You’re giving ‘em
education, but that only makes slick rascals out of ‘em.”
“Don’t fancy for a moment,” said the Northern man, “that you have any monopoly in buying
ignorant votes. The same thing is done on a larger scale in New York and Boston, and in
Chicago and San Francisco; and they are not black votes either. As to education making the
Negro worse, you had just as well tell me that religion does the same thing. And, by the
way, how many educated colored men do you know personally?”
The Texan admitted that he knew only one, and added that he was in the
penitentiary. “But,” he said, “do you mean to claim, ballot or no ballot, education or no
education, that niggers are the equals of white men?”
“That’s not the question,” answered the other, “but if the Negro is so distinctly
inferior, it is a strange thing to me that it takes such tremendous effort on the part of the
white man to make him realize it, and to keep him in the same place into which inferior men
naturally fall. However, let us grant for the sake of argument that the Negro is inferior in
every respect to the white man; that fact only increases our moral responsibility in regard to
our actions toward him. Inequalities of numbers, wealth and power, even of intelligence and
morals, should make no difference in the essential rights of men”
“If he’s inferior and weaker, and is shoved to the wall, that’s his own look out,”
said the Texan. “That’s the law of nature, and he’s bound to go to the wall; for no race in
the world has ever been able to stand competition with the Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxon
race has always been and always will be the masters of the world, and the niggers in the
South ain’t going to change all the records of history.”
“My friend,” said the old soldier slowly, “if you have studied history, will you
tell me, as confidentially between whit men, what the Anglo-Saxon has ever done?
The Texan was too much astonished by the question to venture a reply.
His opponent continued, “Can you name a single one of the great fundamental
and original intellectual achievements which have raised man in the scale of civilization that
may be credited to the Anglo-Saxon? The art of letters, of poetry, of music, of sculpture, of
painting, of the drama, of architecture; the science of mathematics, of astronomy, of
philosophy, of logic, of physics, of chemistry, the use of metals and the principles of
mechanics, were all invented or discovered by darker and what we now call inferior races
and nations. We have carried many of these too their highest point of perfection, but the
foundation was laid by others.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Talking Points
Alll the discussion of the rail car is
positioned, by Ex, to come to a
head in this encounter. What do
the veterans remarks suggest
about the effect of slavery/racism
on oppressor and oppressor alike?
What is the significance of the fact
that this conversation is taking
place between the Texan and a
figure associated with
emancipation? What do you make
of the soldier’s lack of pride in this
respect?
Anglo Saxon civilization is figured,
here, as a derivative and sick
hybrid. Negro culture is by
opposition valorized. What is the
significance of all this?
What are the multiple ironies at
work in the Texan’s fear of a
“mulatto nation”
Clotel: Passing and Passing out of the Slave Narrative: The Train
•
"There," said he, "can you find anything against
Connecticut equal to that?" The Southerner had to admit
that he was beat by the Yankee. During all this time, it
must not be supposed that the old gent with the two
daughters, and even the young ladies themselves, had been
silent. Clotel and they had not only given their opinions
as regarded the merits of the discussion, but that sly
glance of the eye, which is ever given where the young of
both sexes meet, had been freely at work. The American
ladies are rather partial to foreigners, and Clotel had
the appearance of a fine Italian. The old gentleman was
now near his home, and a whisper from the eldest daughter,
who was unmarried but marriageable, induced him to extend
to "Mr. Johnson" an invitation to stop and spend a week
with the young ladies at their family residence. Clotel
excused herself upon various grounds, and at last, to cut
short the matter, promised that she would pay them a visit
on her return. The arrival of the coach at Lynchburgh
separated the young ladies from the Italian gent, and the
coach again resumed its journey.
X
•
When I reached Macon I decided to leave my trunk and all my surplus
belongings, to pack my bag, and strike out into the interior. This I did; and
by train, by mule and ox-cart, I traveled through many counties. This was
my first real experience among rural colored people, and all I saw was
interesting to me; but there was a great deal which does not require
description at my hands; for log cabins and plantations and dialect-speaking
darkies are perhaps better known in American literature than any other single
picture of our national life. Indeed, they form an ideal and exclusive literary
concept of the American Negro to such an extent that it is almost impossible
to get the reading public to recognize him in any other setting; but I shall
endeavor to avoid giving the reader any overworked and hackneyed
descriptions. This generally accepted literary ideal of the American Negro
constitutes what is really an obstacle in the way of the thoughtful and
progressive element of the race. His character has been established as a
happy-go-lucky, laughing, shuffling, banjo-picking being, and the reading
public has not yet been prevailed upon to take him seriously. His efforts to
elevate himself socially are looked upon as a sort of absurd caricature of
“white civilization.” A novel dealing with colored people who lived in
respectable homes and amidst a fair degree of culture and who naturally
acted “just like white folks” would be taken in a comic opera sense. In this
respect the Negro is much in the position of a great comedian who gives up
the lighter roles to play tragedy. No matter how well he may portray the
deeper passions, the public is loathe to give him up in his old character; they
even conspire to make him a failure in serious work, in order to force him
back into comedy. In the same respect, the public is not to much to be
blamed, for great comedians are far more scarce than mediocre tragedians,
every amateur actor is a tragedian. However, this very fact constitutes the
opportunity of the future Negro novelist and poet to give the country
something new and unknown, in depicting the life, the ambitions, the
struggles and the passions of those of their race who are striving to break the
narrow limits of traditions. A beginning has already been made in that
remarkable book by Dr. Du Bois, “The Souls of Black Folk.”
1)
2)
3)
4)
Talking Points
How does this passage function as
a meta-textual commentary on that
of the novel’s? How do previous
depictions of African-Americans
play into it?
With all this in mind, conjecture as
to the multiple significance of Ex’s
views on minstrelsy and its causes?
What are these causes and what
double bind do they present the
minstrel Subject?
What are some of the many ways
to interpret the multiple
significances of Ex’s overt love of
“The Souls of Black Folk”?
X
Before noon they brought him in. Two horsemen rode abreast; between them, half dragged, the
poor wretch made his way through the dust. His hands were tied behind him, and ropes around his
body were fastened to the saddle horns of his double guard. The men who at midnight had been
stern and silent were now emitting that terror instilling sound known as the “rebel yell.” A space
was quickly cleared in the crowd, and a rope placed about his neck; when from somewhere came
the suggestion, “Burn him.” It ran like an electric current. Have you ever witnessed the
transformation of human beings into savage beasts? Nothing can be more terrible. A railroad tie
was sunk into the ground, the rope was removed and a chain brought and securely coiled around
the victim and the stake. There he stood, a man only in form and stature, every sign of degeneracy
stamped upon his countenance. His eyes were dull and vacant, indicating not a single ray of
thought. Evidently the realization of his fearful fate had robbed him of whatever reasoning power
he had ever possessed. He was too stunned and stupefied even to tremble. Fuel was brought from
everywhere, oil, the torch; the flames crouched for an instant as though to gather strength, then
leaped up as high as their victim’s head. He squirmed, he writhed, strained at his chains, then gave
out cries and groans that I shall always hear. The cries and groans were choked off by the fire and
smoke, but his eyes bulging from their sockets, rolled from side to side, appealing in vain for help.
Some of the crowd yelled and cheered, others seemed appalled at what they had done, and there
were those who turned away sickened at the sight. I was fixed to the spot where I stood, powerless
to take my eyes from what I did not want to see.
It was over before I realized that time had elapsed. Before I could make myself believe
that what I saw was really happening, I was looking at a scorched post, a smoldering fire,
blackened bones, charred fragments sifting down through coils of chain, and the smell of burnt
flesh – human flesh – was in my nostrils.
I walked a short distance away, and sat down in order to clear my dazed mind. A great
wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so
dealt with, and shame for my country, that it, the great example of democracy to the world, should
be the only civilized, if not the only state on earth, where a human being would be burned alive.
My heart turned bitter within me. I could understand why Negroes are led to sympathize with even
their worst criminals, and to protect them when possible. By all the impulses of normal human
nature they can and should do nothing less.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Talking Points
What rhetorical effect is
produced by referring to
the mob as one
transformed into
“savage beasts”?
Contextualize as to the
multiple significance of
Ex’s multiple shames?
How does the concept
“normal human nature”
play out in this passage?
Ex locates this as the
point where his heart
“turned bitter.” What
are the rhetorical
significances of this
gesture for the book’s
ability to capitalize on
the “confessional
economy.?”
XI
•
•
•
Up to this time I had assumed and played my role as a white man
with a certain degree of nonchalance, a carelessness as to the
outcome which made the whole thing more amusing to me than
serious; but now I ceased to regard “being a white man” as a sort
of practical joke. My acting had called for mere external effects.
Now I began to doubt my ability to play the part. I watched her to
see if she was scrutinizing me, to see if she was looking for
anything in me which made me differ from the other men she
knew. In place of an old inward feeling of superiority over many
of my friends, I began to doubt myself. I began to wonder if I
really was like the men I associated with; if there was not, after
all, an indefinable something which marked a difference.
But, in spite of my doubts and timidity, my affair
progressed; and I finally felt sufficiently encouraged to decide to
ask her to marry me. Then began the hardest struggle of my life,
whether to ask her to marry me under false colors or to tell her the
whole truth. My sense of what was exigent made me feel there
was no necessity of saying anything; but my inborn sense of
honor rebelled at even indirect deception in this case. But
however much I moralized on the question, I found it more and
more difficult to reach the point of confession. The dread that I
might lose her took possession of me each time I sought to speak,
and rendered it impossible for me to do so. That moral courage
requires more than physical courage is no mere poetic fancy. I am
sure I would have found it easier to take the place of a gladiator,
no matter how fierce the Numidian lion, than to tell that slender
girl that I had Negro blood in my veins. The fact which I had at
times wished to cry out, I now wished to hide forever.
1)
2)
Talking Points
Here, Ex supposedly forsakes the
practical joke offers us his
confession. What is it? How does
it make us think about it the
manner Heine thinks of
Rousseau’s?
Why offer the “fake-out”
confession in this form?
XI
One evening, a few days afterwards, at her home, we were going over some new
songs and compilations, when she asked m, as she often did, to play the “13th
Nocturne.” When I began she drew a chair near to my right, and sat leaning wish
her elbow on the end of the piano, her chin resting on her hand, and her eyes
reflecting the emotions which the music awoke in her. An impulse which I could
not control rushed over me, a wave of exaltation, the music under my fingers sank
to almost a whisper, and calling her for the first time by her Christian name, but
without daring to look at her, I said, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” My fingers
were trembling, so that I ceased playing. I felt her hand creep to mine, and when I
looked at her her eyes were glistening with tears. I understood, and could scarcely
resist the longing to take her in my arms; but I remembered, remembered that which
has been the sacrificial altar of so much happiness—Duty; and bending over her
hand in mine, I said, “Yes, I love you; but there is something more, too, that I must
tell you.” Then I told her, in what words I do not know, the truth. I felt her hand
grow cold, and when I looked up she was gazing at me with a wild, fixed stare as
though I was some object she had never seen. Under the strange light in her eyes I
felt that I was growing black and thick-featured and crimp-haired. She appeared not
to have comprehended what I had said. Her lips trembled and she attempted to say
something to me; but the words stuck in her throat. Then dropping her head on the
piano she began to weep with great sobs that shook her frail body. I tried to console
her, and blurted out incoherent words of love; but this seemed only to increase her
distress, and when I left her she was still weeping.
When I got into the street I felt very much as I did the night after meeting
my father and sister at the opera house in Paris, even a similar desperate inclination
to get drunk; but my self-control was stronger. This was the only time in my life
that I ever felt absolute regret at being colored that I cursed the drops of African
blood in my veins, and wished that I were really white.
1)
2)
3)
Talking Points
Here ex offers the
details behind his
supposed sin? What
are they and what ere
their significances?
Ex compares this love
affair to the moment
he somewhat casually
renounce his
patrimony in Paris?
What is the
significance of this
tie?
Here we have another
explanation for Ex’s
decision to pass.
Describe its nature
and its rhetorical
effect with respect to
the economies of
confession, hybridity,
and (choice)
individualism?
Clotel: Passing and Passing out of the Slave Narrative: The Dark
Secret
•
The rush of memory almost overpowered poor Clotel; and Horatio
felt too much oppressed and ashamed to break the long deep
silence. At length, in words scarcely audible, Clotel said:
"Tell me, dear Horatio, are you to be married next week?" He
dropped her hand as if a rifle ball had struck him; and it was
not until after long hesitation, that he began to make some
reply about the necessity of circumstances. Mildly but
earnestly the poor girl begged him to spare apologies. It was
enough that he no longer loved her, and that they must bid
farewell. Trusting to the yielding tenderness of her
character, he ventured, in the most soothing accents, to
suggest that as he still loved her better than all the world,
she would ever be his real wife, and they might see each other
frequently. He was not prepared for the storm of indignant
emotion his words excited. True, she was his slave; her
bones, and sinews had been purchased by his gold, yet she had
the heart of a true woman, and hers was a passion too deep and
absorbing to admit of partnership, and her spirit was too pure
to form a selfish league with crime.
XI
•
•
The few years of our married life were
supremely happy, and, perhaps she was even
happier than I; for after our marriage, in spite
of all the wealth of her love which she lavished
upon me, there came a new dread to haunt me,
a dread which I cannot explain and which was
unfounded, but one that never left me. I was in
constant fear that she would discover in me
some shortcoming which she would
unconsciously attribute to my blood rather than
to a failing of human nature. But no cloud ever
came to mar our life together; her lose to me is
irreparable. My children need a mother’s care,
but I shall never marry again. It is to my
children that I have devoted my life. I no
longer have the same fear for myself of my
secret being found out; for since my wife’s
death I have gradually dropped out of social
life; but there is noting I would not suffer to
keep the “brand” from being placed upon them.
1)
2)
Talking Points
Ex’s married life was happy, but
now he find himself wealthy and
socially isolated? What is the
significance of invoking class in
this context and with respect to
previous uplift strategies invoked?
Ex offers us a reason for his
anonymity? How does it, too
serve to legitimize the choice that
leads to his lamentable fate. How
is Ex rehearsing his mother’s unforgiven crimes here?
XI
•
•
•
It is difficult for me to analyze my feelings concerning my present
position in the world. Sometimes it seems to me that I have never
really been a Negro; that I have been only a privileged spectator of
their inner life; at other times I feel that I have been a coward, a
deserter, and I am possessed by a strange longing for my mother’s
people.
Several years ago I attended a great meeting in the interest
of Hampton Institute at Carnegie Hall. The Hampton students sang
the old songs and awoke memories that left me sad. Among the
speakers were R.C. Ogden, Ex-Ambassador Choate, and Mark
Twain; but the greatest interest of the audience was centered on
Booker T. Washington; and not because he so much surpassed the
others in eloquence, but because of what he represented with so
much earnestness and faith. And it is this that all of that small but
gallant band of colored men who are publicly fighting the cause of
their race have behind them. Even those who oppose them know
that these men have the eternal principles of right on their side, and
they will be victors even though they should go down in defeat.
Beside them I feel small and selfish. I am an ordinarily successful
white man who has made a little money. They are men who are
making history and a race. I, too, might have taken part in a work
so glorious.
My love for my children makes me glad that I am what I
am, and keeps me from desiring to be otherwise; and yet, when I
sometimes open a little box in which I still keep my fast yellowing
manuscripts, the only tangible remnants of a vanished dream, a
dead ambition, a sacrificed talent, I cannot repress the thought,
that, after all, I have chosen the lesser part, that I have sold my
birthright for a mess of pottage.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Talking Points
Here, Ex offers us a reflection on
the implications of his
confessional sin. How does it
comment and invoke Du Bois?
Ex’s faux confession presents us
with a mulatto who has been
Tricked into renouncing his
heritage? What multiple factors
complicate the logic of that
confession?
Look at the invocation of
Washington and Twain in this
passage. How does Ex’s reverence
for the former inform our view of
these the the final moments of his
confessionary bildungsroman?
Ex says he has sold his soul. What
is this faux confession of a tragic
mulatto also an endorsement of?
In short, what is the trick?