The Tragic Black Buck: Racial Masquerading in the American Literary Imagination
The Tragic Black Buck examines the phenomenon, often paradoxical, of black males passing for white in American literature. Focusing on the first third of the twentieth century, the book argues that black individuals successfully assuming a white identity represent a paradox, in that passing for white exemplifies a challenge to the hegemonic philosophy of biological white supremacy, while denying blackness. Issues of race, gender, skin color, class, and law are examined in the literature of...
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Thompson (African American and American literature, City U. of New York-Medgar Evers College) looks at light-skinned black men who pass for white in four novels of the first third of the 20th century. He argues that they challenge the hedonistic and hegemonic ideology of biological white supremacy, but sometimes deny blackness in terms of their family, history, and culture. He does not provide an index. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Ch. 1Introduction : black bucks being as white as they wanna be : the historical and theoretical roots of black people passing for white1Ch. 2"The circular ruins" of passing : race, class, and gender in Charles Waddell Chesnutt's The house behind the cedars20Ch. 3The improvisational and Faustian performance in James Weldon Johnson's The autobiography of an ex-coloured man47Ch. 4The tragic black buck : Jay Gatsby's passing in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The great Gatsby75Ch. 5Joe Christmas, a black buck with attitude : the virulent nexus of race and color in William Faulkner's Light in August104
