American Literature Commons^™

Identity Anxiety And The Power And Problem Of Naming In African American And Jewish American Literature, Rachael Peckham

English Faculty Research

This article examines the fraught power of names and (re)naming in African-American and Jewish-authored literature in 20^th-century America. The article applies various concepts within critical race theory, such as critic Stuart Hall's theories on cultural identity, to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Ralph Ellison's personal essay "Hidden Name and Complex Fate," and Bernard Malamud's short story "The Lady of the Lake." In each of these texts, African-American and Jewish characters' names serve as loaded markers for the shifting planes of identity in tension with a culture and history of oppression.