USA Africa Dialogue Series - FACING DEATH: THE FEAR OF DEATH VS. THE DEATH OF FEAR

http://web.ku.edu/~wrightconnection/cgi-bin/wordpress/2011/03/facing-death-the-fear-of-death-vs-the-death-of-fear/

FACING DEATH:
THE FEAR OF DEATH VS. THE DEATH OF FEAR
Posted on March 17, 2011

Abstract:

In my work on Native Son, and on Wright's work in general, I have
focused on the effects of the threat of death (lynching in Jim Crow
society) as well as of the ensuing fear of death on the formation of
individual psyche and subjectivity. And I have argued that all of
Wright's fiction is a systematic examination of the subject formed by
the threat of death; it is an examination of how the threat/fear of
death permeates every nook and cranny of the individual psyche. The
virtual seminar, focusing in particular on Book Three of Native Son,
will examine how Bigger Thomas faces his fear of death and finally
overcomes it. Traditional literary criticism sees Book Three as the
weakest part of Native Son; I will argue that it is the strongest and
most powerful. My approach to this book and Wright's work in general
is based on the notion that the slave's fear of death plays a crucial
role in his/her enslavement and that conversely the overcoming of that
fear can open the road to freedom.

It may be useful to keep in mind several statements by Wright, from
Black Boy, regarding his view of lynching. By the age of eleven, he
tells us, he "had already become as conditioned to [the] existence [of
white racist society] as though I had been the victim of a thousand
lynchings" (BB, 72). And when an older brother of a friend is lynched,
the horror permeates the "deepest layers" of Wright's consciousness
and compels him "to give my entire imagination over to it, an act
which blocked the spring of thought and feeling in me, creating a
sense of distance between me and the world in which I lived" (BB, 165,
emphasis added).

About Abdul JanMohamed:
Dr. Abdul JanMohamed is a Professor of English at the University of
California: Berkeley. He is a leading scholar in the area of Minority
Discourse. Dr. JanMohamed has published several important articles
about Richard Wright, including, "Richard Wright as a Specular Border
Intellectual: The Politics of Identification in Black Power,"
"Negating the Negation as a Form of Affirmation in Minority Discourse:
The Construction of Richard Wright as Subject." He is also the author
of The Death-Bound-Subject: Richard Wright's Archeology of Death. More
on Dr. JanMohamed.

Readings for the seminar
Biko ON DEATHhttp://web.ku.edu/~wrightconnection/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Biko-ON-DEATH.doc
Between the World and
Mehttp://web.ku.edu/~wrightconnection/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Between-the-World-and-Me.doc
Click here to register for the seminar.
Category: Virtual Seminars

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