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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.41600 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Greenfield, Nathan M., 1958- |
| Contributors | Ohlin, Peter (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001401488, proquestno: NN94626, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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