Plotting the black masculine: The figure of the black rapist between the wars.
Item
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Title
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Plotting the black masculine: The figure of the black rapist between the wars.
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Identifier
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AAI3127874
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identifier
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3127874
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Creator
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Grover, Donna Ford.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Jane Marcus
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American | American Studies | History, Black
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Abstract
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In this dissertation I examine black masculinity and its symbiotic relationship with white femininity and how this relationship forms 20th century discourses on citizenship and political rights in the US. I show how the literary works of Jessie Redmon Fauset, Walter White, Richard Wright, William Faulkner and Margaret Mitchell, construct a rape plot in which a black man's desire for political and social enfranchisement is read by the white man as desire for the white woman. White men use the body of the white woman to mediate the discourse of manhood and political rights between themselves and black men. Therefore the rape plot has little to do with the act of rape: It underwrites a system of white male hegemonic power. Centuries old archetypes of the black male rapist, white female victim and avenging white male are manipulated, subverted as well as reified within the rape plot to address issues around black male agency. These issues are as diverse as citizenship, sexual agency and social equality. Black male agency, or the lack of, is usually central to building a rape plot, as are other specific constructions of gender. Absent from this triangle is the black female. The power relations between white and black men in the rape plot serve to negate her and the abuse she suffered at the hands of white men during slavery. My discussion begins with World War I and the emergence of the "New Negro." The participation of black men in the armed services during the war was seen by some as a great stride in the battle for equal rights. But the figure of the uniformed black soldier led to major riots across the US. Desiring of citizenship and full enfranchisement, the patriotic soldier was reduced to rapist and became a target of white violence. In the period between the wars, the black rapist occupies the consciousness of both blacks and whites. The figure of the black rapist is historic and a part of the American landscape of race and gender construction.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
