This thesis argues that Charles W. Chesnutt's writings challenged the central assumptions of his America's racial thinking. An important part of this challenge is the difference between the two discourses which dominate The Conjure Woman. The first uses ethnographic discourse to create "the Other;" the second effaces the differences between himself and other Americans. Unlike most of the other writers of his period, Chesnutt shows African-American men and women to be fully developed moral, ethical and emotional individuals; in his works slave-holders and those who sought to "redeem" the South were morally and ethically underdeveloped. Both his writings and his career demonstrate that African-Americans were capable of prospering as independent actors in a free labor market. While critical of the actions of America's legal system, unlike many of his contemporaries, Chesnutt believed that injustice began when racial thinking led legal actors to deviate from the established rules of common law.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:59:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Orison Marden Bandeira de Melo Junior.pdf: 822477 bytes, checksum: e35e8d22d9ae8fb3fb9c21cad662fdfc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-12-06 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The present research proposes a comparative study between O Mulato, by Aluísio Azevedo and The House Behind the Cedars, by Charles Chesnutt, aiming at verifying some evidence of race prejudice in the voice of the novels narrators. Due to that, I first tried to analyze some scientific theories which have defended the inferiority of the black race and their portrayal through various stereotypes found not only in the novels which constitute the corpus of this study, but also in some prior to them. Furthermore, I examined some concepts from Comparative Literature which guided not only the comparison between the two frontier novels but also the use of notions from Science, History and Religion. Thus, I verified that both narratives were analogous in various aspects, among which I mention: (1) small and prejudiced cities; (2) the chronological time of the plots determined by historical events; (3) thirdperson omniscient and intrusive narrators; (5) afro-descendent heroes portrayed with physical and cultural characteristics of white heroes; (6) the end of the heroes by death, and (7) interracial relationship as the intriguing element of racial discrimination portrayed in the novels. Among the individual characteristics of each book, I pointed out (1) the angle of vision in the narratives, since the world depicted in O Mulato is the world of white people whereas the world in The House Behind the Cedars is the world of black people, and (2) the consciousness of black ancestry, which is not found in the main character of the Brazilian novel and is always present in the main character of the American novel. Finally, I tried to answer the research question by concluding that I believe that there is a contradiction in the voice of the narrator, who, although telling a plot whose ideological function is to fight against race prejudice, corroborates the racist scientific theories by describing secondary characters in the narratives stereotypically and afro-descendent heroes with physical and cultural characteristics of white heroes / A presente pesquisa retrata a proposta de um estudo comparativista entre O Mulato, de Aluísio Azevedo e The House Behind the Cedars, de Charles Chesnutt, objetivando verificar algum indício de preconceito racial na voz do narrador dos romances. Diante disso, procurei, em primeiro lugar, analisar algumas teorias científicas que defendiam a inferioridade da raça negra e a sua representação na literatura através de vários estereótipos encontrados não só nas obras que se constituem o corpus deste trabalho, mas também em romances que os antecederam. Ademais, visitei alguns conceitos da literatura comparada que nortearam não só comparação entre esses dois romances de fronteira, como também a utilização de noções da ciência, da história e da religião. Verifiquei, assim, que as duas obras eram análogas em vários aspectos; entre eles, cito: (1) cidades pequenas e preconceituosas; (2) eventos históricos que determinavam o tempo cronológico das tramas; (3) narrador onisciente, em terceira pessoa e intruso; (4) narração com indícios de preconceito do narrador; (5) heróis afro-descendentes com características físicas e culturais de heróis brancos; (6) fim do herói pela morte e (7) relacionamento inter-racial como o elemento instigador do preconceito racial representado nos romances. Entre as características individuais de cada obra, apontei (1) o ângulo de visão de cada romance, já que o mundo representado em O Mulato é o mundo dos brancos, enquanto o de The House Behind the Cedars é o dos negros, e (2) a consciência da ascendência negra, ausente no protagonista da obra brasileira, mas sempre presente no da obra americana. Finalmente, procurei responder à pergunta de pesquisa, concluindo acreditar haver contradição na voz do narrador, que, apesar de narrar uma trama cuja função ideológica era combater o racismo, corrobora, na sua narrativa, as teorias científicas racistas, através da descrição estereotipada de personagens secundárias e da descrição dos heróis afro-descendentes com características físicas e culturais de heróis brancos