ENG364Y1 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Narcissism, Lydia Davis, Fantasy
ENG364Y1
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Lecture 1
20th Century American Lit Notes
Lecture 1 Autobiography of an Ex Coloured Man September 29th
-WBE dubois: the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the colour line
-white europeans developed a theory of race as a justification for colonialism
-to justify it as a natural civilizing process
-race becomes world defining with the start of trans atlantic oceanic travel
-when they crossed the ocean, differences between people became more sudden
-in american, conversations about race must always be tied to slavery
-slavery was the bedrock of the american economy for 200 years
-slave owners began to develop a quasi scientific theory of race to religiously justify their
actions
-first usage of the word white was in 1691
-there was the hope that racial categorization could explain psychological, biological
differences between people
-this theory is called racial essentialism—the belief that races have certain fixed
properties that explain both differences in appearance and cultural sensibilities
-an essence in the blood
-this theory gave the nazi regime a veneer of scientific legitimacy
-the narrator describes his father in terms of the objects around him—his hat, his watch,
the shiny gold piece
-the flatness of the language is used to keep up the conceit of an autobiography written
by some other person
-his father is present in his life only through the objects he gives him
-these objects are already somehow tarnished
-the watch symbolizing time is the essence of white privilege—the time to pursue one’s
pleasure is a white privilege
-autobiography of a ex coloured man modelled after slave narratives
-the narrator and his mother are forced to flee to the north
-yet he can never escape his racial background
-the ten dollar gold piece on the chain is a new version of the chains of slavery
-the coin is a gift whose value has been mitigated
-the gift of his whiteness also has no value
-the coin represents his complex inheritance
-narrator is cut from his racial inheritance, and his literal inheritance
-irony: a discrepancy between what is said and meant
-a subtly humorous perception of inconsistency in which an apparently straightforward
statement
-this book uses structural irony—the use of a naive of deluded hero or unreliable narrator
whose view of the world differs widely from the true circumstances recognized by the
author or readers
-literary irony thus flatters its readers’ intelligence at the expense of a character (or
fictional narrator)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
-shiny and red have names referring to their physical, racial appearance
-ironic that a man who is troubled by his racial identity in life makes two friends who
embody the two aspects of his racial make up
-protagonists’ relationships to them are loaded with racial anxiety
-narrator mentions shiny’s skin colour, but not reds
-he also mentions the importance of others’ opinions of shiny
-whiteness is invisible, while shiny’s blackness is highly visible
-the two friends also symbolize different levels of personal ambition
-shiny inspires narrator to accept his race, he finds ambition and idealism
-shiny stands in for a noble ambition
-red is going to use his family options to walk into a job, and take the easy option
-they represent the two avenues available to the narrator
-the narrator might have been a great black leader and activist and artist, instead
choosing to become an ordinarily successful white man
-given the choice between shiny and red, the narrator chose red, giving up entirely his
black identity
-yet another layer of irony lies in the fact that in writing this story, james weldon johnson
becomes a great black artist
-when the narrator realizes his colour, his american dream is broken
-the word other is loaded
-a concept of race as something socially constructed rather than inherited—the narrator
has to be told he is black
-contradicts the essentialist view, as the narrator has to learn what it means to be black
in america
-the discovery of his blackness is also the discovery of his physical beauty
-irony: the ex coloured man notices his white skin right after he’s been told he’s not white
-the period after the reconstruction (1865-1877) is sometimes called the jim crow era
(1890-1964)
-an era of segregation laws
-jim crow laws challenged by home poesy
-supreme court determine that segregation laws were perfectly legal because they were
separate but equal
-what was equal was not the people, bit the amenities had to be
-the narrator is living in a world of separate but equal
-the one drop rule: if a person has even a drop of black blood they are legally black
-another cost of racism is that it twists his most intimate relationship, by making him see
his mother in a different light
-while racial identity may be fluid, racial prejudice is not
-by the end, the narrator’s early ambitions have come to nothing
-he thinks of booker t washington no longer as an inspiration, but as a reminder of his
failure
-Johnson succeeds in the way that the narrator does not
-one thing that johnson does have in common with the narrator is a love of music
-johnson was a composer with bob cole—cole and the chanson brothers and wrote
songs for broadway musicals
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lecture 1 autobiography of an ex coloured man september 29th. Wbe dubois: the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the colour line. White europeans developed a theory of race as a justification for colonialism. To justify it as a natural civilizing process. Race becomes world defining with the start of trans atlantic oceanic travel. When they crossed the ocean, differences between people became more sudden. In american, conversations about race must always be tied to slavery. Slavery was the bedrock of the american economy for 200 years. Slave owners began to develop a quasi scientific theory of race to religiously justify their actions. First usage of the word white was in 1691. There was the hope that racial categorization could explain psychological, biological differences between people. This theory is called racial essentialism the belief that races have certain fixed properties that explain both differences in appearance and cultural sensibilities.
