Deconstructing Eurocentric Representation in Charles Johnson's 'Middle Passage'

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2015 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 16/20, , course: Afro-American literature, language: English, abstract: In many ways, Charles Johnson's novel 'The Middle Passage' (1990) can be considered a subtle rewriting of slavery and a meticulous rethinking of the Eurocentric representations of blacks. Through the journey of an ex-slave, Calhoun Ruthford, stowing away on a ship to escape a forced marriage, Charles Johnson weaves a postmodern slave narrative told from the perspective of a black protagonist to question the tropes of white superiority. In every twist and turn of the plot, Calhoun's reflective Journey underlies different sites of deconstruction against white paradigms, artistically masterminded to unveil significant moments of self-contradictory essentialist Eurocentrism. With a counter-discourse advocating inter-subjectivity, human interconnectedness, subjective mobility and third spaces, the middle passage, as this essay argues, enacts different deconstructive strategies involving anti-Eurocentric cultural politics with rebellious Afro-American poetics

I obtained my B.A degree in English Literature from Cadi Ayyad university , an MA in literary and cultural studies from Sultan Moulay Slimane university, Beni-Mellal, and currently preparing a Ph.D. on 'The Problematic of Becoming in Margaret Atwood's Novels'. I have taught at high school in different regions of Morocco since 1996, and since 2012 I have lectured at Sultan Moulay Slimane university on different literary and culture-related subjects such as the novel, postcolonial theory, cultural theory, literary theory and mythologies of the western world. I have supervised several B .A monographs on literature and media. My current research interests include literary criticism, cultural studies, women's writing, postcolonial studies, film studies and Theory.

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