{"id":40907,"date":"2015-04-18T21:48:17","date_gmt":"2015-04-18T21:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=40907"},"modified":"2015-04-20T19:00:52","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T19:00:52","slug":"reading-racist-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=40907","title":{"rendered":"Reading Racist Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading Racist Literature<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

New Yorker<\/a>
\n2015-04-13<\/p>\n

Elif Batuman<\/strong><\/a>, Staff Writer<\/p>\n

Of the many passages that gave me pause when I first read \u201cLady Chatterley\u2019s Lover<\/a>,\u201d in high school, the one I remember the most clearly is this conversation between Connie, Clifford, and the Irish writer Michaelis:<\/p>\n

\u201cI find I can\u2019t marry an Englishwoman, not even an Irishwoman\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cTry an American,\u201d said Clifford.
\n\u201cOh, American!\u201d He laughed a hollow laugh. \u201cNo, I\u2019ve asked my man if he will find me a Turk or something\u2026something nearer to the Oriental.\u201d
\nConnie really wondered at this queer, melancholy specimen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For many readers, this exchange might have slipped by unnoticed. But, as a Turkish American, I couldn\u2019t prevent myself from registering all the slights against Turkish people that I encountered in European books. In \u201cHeidi<\/a>,\u201d the meanest goat is called \u201cthe Great Turk.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…A few weeks later, I saw \u201cAn Octoroon<\/a>,\u201d Branden Jacobs-Jenkins\u2019s<\/a> refashioning of the Irish playwright Dion Boucicault\u2019s<\/a> 1859 melodrama of almost the same title (\u201cThe Octoroon<\/a>\u201d). (Jacobs-Jenkins was formerly on the staff of this magazine.) In an opening monologue, B. J. J., \u201ca black playwright,\u201d recounts a conversation with his therapist, about his lack of joy in theatre. When asked to name a playwright he admires, he can think of only one: Dion Boucicault. The therapist has never heard of Boucicault, or \u201cThe Octoroon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s an octoroon<\/a>?\u201d she asks. He tells her. \u201cAh. And you like this play?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the basic dramatic situation: a black playwright, in 2014, is somehow unable to move beyond a likeable 1859 work, named after a forgotten word once used to describe nonwhite people in the same terms as breeds of livestock. What do you do with your mixed feelings toward a text that treats as stage furniture the most grievous and unhealed insult in American history\u2014especially when you belong to the insulted group?<\/p>\n

Boucicault\u2019s original script is set on a plantation, Terrebonne, shortly after the death of its owner, Judge Peyton. Peyton\u2019s nephew, George, has just returned from Paris to take control of the property; he falls in love with Zoe, the judge\u2019s illegitimate octoroon daughter, who has been raised as a member of the family. The villain M\u2019Closkey, who has designs on both Terrebonne and Zoe, manages to have both put under the auctioneer\u2019s hammer. The estate is eventually saved, by complex means involving an exploding steamship\u2014but not before Zoe has poisoned herself in despair.<\/p>\n

B. J. J., following his therapist\u2019s advice, decides to restage \u201cThe Octoroon,\u201d but white actors refuse to work with him: nobody wants to play slave owners. In the play within a play, B. J. J. puts on whiteface and acts both the hero George and the villain M\u2019Closkey himself…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Racist Literature New Yorker 2015-04-13 Elif Batuman, Staff Writer Of the many passages that gave me pause when I first read \u201cLady Chatterley\u2019s Lover,\u201d in high school, the one I remember the most clearly is this conversation between Connie, Clifford, and the Irish writer Michaelis: \u201cI find I can\u2019t marry an Englishwoman, not even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1196,8],"tags":[18497,18486,1627,19930,16819],"class_list":["post-40907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","tag-an-octoroon","tag-branden-jacobs-jenkins","tag-dion-boucicault","tag-elif-batuman","tag-new-yorker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40907","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=40907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}