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African American Studies Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2014

Rhode Island College

Mat Johnson; Poe; Pym; parody; whiteness; afro-american literary history;

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Full-Text Articles in African American Studies

Melvillian Whiteness In Johnson's Pym, Jess Mandeville Jan 2014

Melvillian Whiteness In Johnson's Pym, Jess Mandeville

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Henry Louis Gates write that "Afro-American literary history is characterized by ... formal revision," wherein "black writers read and critique other ... texts as an act of rhetorical self-definition" (992). This revision is accomplished by a unique process of signification, an "Afro-American rhetorical strategy... [that] turns on the play and chain of signifiers" (989) drawn from literary and cultural texts, utilizing techniques such as "figuration, troping, ... parody ... [and] pastiche" (992).

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