AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 5, Number 2. May  2021                                Pp.49-61
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no2.4

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Violence/Accommodation Binary in Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition 

Hind Naji Hussein Ithawi
Department of English, College of Languages
University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
Email: hind.n@colang.uobaghdad.edu.iq

Received: 3/22/2021               Accepted: 4/29/202                Published:  5/ 24/2021

Abstract:
The present paper examines the divergent attitudes of black characters toward racism in Charles W. Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Traditions (1901). Chesnutt wrote his novel to reflect his opinions on how African Americans should act to improve their situation. To situate the study within the historical and cultural context of Marrow, Black intellectuals’ views, namely Washington and Du Bois, about the complicated problem of ‘color’ were explored. To analyze the contrasting views and actions of Chesnutt’s black characters, the paper uses the lens of postcolonial theory. Although Marrow is not set within a colonial context, postcolonial theoretical frameworks can be used as models to re-read this novel because they deal with intersections of races, classes, cultures, and the oppressor/ oppressed relationship. The paper concludes that Chesnutt has entertained the possibility of a hybrid or third race— as referred to within postcolonial framework—that may succeed where both races (pure white and black) have failed.
Keywords: Bhabha, hybridity, mulatto, postcolonial theory, racism, The Marrow of Traditions, violence

Cite as: Ithawi, H. N. H. (2021). Violence/Accommodation Binary in Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition.
Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 5 (2). 49-61
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no2.4

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