{"id":16355,"date":"2011-09-18T04:40:50","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T04:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=16355"},"modified":"2013-10-07T23:44:36","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T23:44:36","slug":"neither-white-nor-black-the-mulatto-character-in-american-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=16355","title":{"rendered":"Neither White Nor Black: The Mulatto Character in American Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neither White Nor Black: The Mulatto Character in American Fiction<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

New York University Press
\n1978
\n280 pages
\nISBN-10: 0814709966; ISBN-13: 978-0814709962
\n9 x 6 x 1 inches<\/p>\n

This book is out of print.<\/em><\/p>\n

Judith R. Berzon<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The mulatto<\/a>\u00a0character has captured the imagination of American novelist in every period of our literature.\u00a0 For American writers, the mulatto has long signified a \u201cmarginal man<\/a>,\u201d caught between two cultures and between the boundaries of the American caste system.\u00a0As such, the mulatto’s biological and psychological responses to his status\u2014attraction and repulsion to both the white an non-white castes\u2014have frequently been fictionalized.<\/p>\n

Neither White Nor Black <\/em>is the first comprehensive study of the mulatto character in American fiction.\u00a0 It is interdisciplinary in approach, drawing from literature, history, sociology, psychology and biology, and assessing the influence of racist ideology, social mythology and historical reality upon the portrayal of the mulatto character.\u00a0 Dr. Berzon examines how the self-concepts of mixed-blood characters are affected by black-white mythology and explores the roles mulattoes have played in American culture.\u00a0 Among the 19th an 20th-century black and white authors examined here are Mark Twain<\/a>, William Faulkner<\/a>, Robert Penn Warren<\/a> and John A. Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Part I of the book, Dr. Berzon provides an introduction to the historical, sociological and scientific backgrounds of the fiction; an overview of the novels; and a discussion of the most prevalent sterotype\u2014\u201cthe tragic mulatto<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Part II defines and illustrates the forms of adjustment to marginality.\u00a0 Each chapter is organized around a specific mode of adjustment\u2014passing<\/a> for white, becoming a member of the black bourgeosie, working as leader of his\/her race, and failing to achieve identification with either the white or black group.\u00a0 In the Postscript, Dr. Berzon examines three novels of the 1970s by important black authors\u2014John A. Williams, Ernest J. Gaines<\/a>, and John Oliver Killens<\/a>.\u00a0 Her study is enriched by the recently published but crucial historical scholarship such as Roll, Jordan Roll <\/em>by Eguene Genovese<\/a>, White Over Black<\/a><\/em> by Winthrop Jordan<\/a>, an The Black Image in the White Mind<\/em> by George Fredrickson<\/a>, as well as the earlier work by Addison Gayle Jr.<\/a>, The Black Aesthetic<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In Neither White Nor Black<\/em>, Dr. Berzon reveals the recurring themes in the portrayal of the mulatto character throughout several periods of the 19th and 20th-century American history.\u00a0 Central to the portrayal of the mulatto during all these periods is the quest for identity, and Dr. Berzon, through her illuminating analysis, provides her readers, whether students of Black studies, American studies, Southern history, literature, or intellectual history, with an essential understanding of that quest and of the role of the mulatto in American society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neither White Nor Black: The Mulatto Character in American Fiction New York University Press 1978 280 pages ISBN-10: 0814709966; ISBN-13: 978-0814709962 9 x 6 x 1 inches This book is out of print. Judith R. Berzon The mulatto\u00a0character has captured the imagination of American novelist in every period of our literature.\u00a0 For American writers, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1196,8,17,6462,10],"tags":[7567,7566,4570,1851,7565,7563,7562,149,962,7564,490,1221,7568],"class_list":["post-16355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-monographs","category-passing-2","category-uk","tag-addison-gayle","tag-addison-gayle-jr","tag-george-fredrickson","tag-george-m-fredrickson","tag-john-a-williams","tag-judith-berzon","tag-judith-r-berzon","tag-mark-twain","tag-new-york-university-press","tag-robert-penn-warren","tag-william-faulkner","tag-winthrop-d-jordan","tag-winthrop-jordan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}