Mixed Race Stereotypes in South African and American Literature: Coloring Outside the (Black and White) Lines

Posted in Africa, Books, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Monographs, South Africa, United States on 2013-11-19 22:55Z by Steven

Mixed Race Stereotypes in South African and American Literature: Coloring Outside the (Black and White) Lines

Palgrave Macmillan
November 2013
208 pages
3 illustrations
5.500 x 8.500 inches
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-137-36492-0, ISBN10: 1-137-36492-0

Diana Adesola Mafe, Assistant Professor of English
Denison University, Granville, Ohio

America’s new millennial interest in multiraciality coincides with South Africa’s post-apartheid push towards greater visibility as the Rainbow Nation. Here, Diana Adesola Mafe argues that the recent celebration of the mulatto as an avatar of positive change for multiracial nations like South Africa and the United States overlooks the complex global trajectories that resulted in this watershed moment. Mixed Race Stereotypes in South African and American Literature examines the popular literary stereotype, the tragic mulatto, from a comparative perspective. Mafe considers the ways in which specific South African and American writers have used this controversial literary character to challenge the logic of racial categorization. The result is a transnational dialogue between these respective national literatures, both of which use tragic mulatto fiction as a locus for broader questions about race and belonging.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction: Tainted Blood: The ‘Tragic Mulatto’ Tradition
  • 1. God’s Stepchildren: The ‘Tragedy of Being a Halfbreed’ in South African Literature
  • 2. ‘An Unlovely Woman’: Bessie Head’s Mulatta (re)Vision
  • 3. ‘A Little Yellow Bastard Boy’: Arthur Nortje’s Mulatto Manhood
  • 4. Tragic to Magic?: Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit
  • Conclusion: Playing in the Light
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