Erasure and the Othering of Texts






Percival Everett's Erasure takes a look at how racism affects various aspects of our lives that we may be unaware of. An excellent example of this is when Ellison ventures into the bookstore to look for his novel only to realize that they are in the Africa-American literature section. A place, as he points out, that is wholly inappropriate for the type of novels he writes and makes it impossible for anyone who might be interested in his re-workings of obscure Greek texts.



I think the point Everett was trying to make with the bookstore scene is how racial classification permeates are life in a ways that we don't even think about. Referring to someone's work as African-American fiction is automatically labeling it less than. It is already being made an "other" to other texts they may be very similar and this othering makes the work less acceptable to more audiences.

And when the text has undergone this othering then it automatically shuts off any conversation about what the text is really about. There are many works found in the African-American literature section that don't belong there. Biographies of MLK Jr. or Sojourner Truth should be found in the same place I'd find works on Roosevelt or Reagan. Brenda Jackson, or Bebe Moore Campbell should be found where I'd find Jude Devereaux or Sandra Brown. But that's not what happens. Instead if it is by a black person and in the case of many biographies, about a black person then it is automatically black book section which sends out the idea of : Hey, this book is by someone black, and must be about someone black and therefore only for black people. That sort of attitude immediately shuts off an entire audience that may find a use for or enjoyment in a novel whose only downside is that it is written by a black person,

How does this othering of Ellison's work fit into the other themes of othering that occur in Erasure? Is this labeling of works by blacks as automatically African-American literature a form of racism? And how does the labeling of work as African-American literature ultimately affect Ellison and his ability to make it as a writer in Erasure?

(C) 2005 Tamika Johnson

Tamika Johnson is a freelance writer and owner of PrologueReviews.com. If you'd like to read more articles by Tamika or would like to have your music, film or book reviewed visit http://www.prologuereviews.com

 Continue for more related information:
RELATED RESULTS:


 

Twin Falls, Gooding, Jerome, ID, and Regional Economic Outlook for 2005
Twin Falls Economic Report done by me; Twin Falls, ID has potential for additional car washes...

Create Your Own Future - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review
Create Your Own Future: How to Master 12 Critical Factors of Unlimited Success by Brian Tracy ...

Book Summary: Good To Great
Explore what goes into a company's transformation frommediocre to excellent. Based on hard evidence and volumes ofdata, the book author (...

Selling Goodness-Introduction To The Book
Unfortunately, I have seen too many of even the most noble and vitally neededcharitable nonprofits fade into obscurity, nev...

Book Review: The NEW Game Of Business
If you think you've seen and heard everything there is to say, The NEW Game of Business brings new distinctions and a fresh pers...

Practice What You Preach - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review
Practice What You Preach: What Managers Must Do to Create a High Achievement Culture by David H. Maister ...

Hard Candy, Nobody Ever Flies over the Cuckoo?s Nest; Book Review
HARD CANDY: Nobody Ever Flies over the Cuckoo's Nest; Written by Charles A. Carroll is a must read....

Turbo Strategy - A Book Summary
Businesses are run mostly on auto-pilot and any problem areas are only dealt with when they are already critical, but by then it may ...

Book Excerpt: Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam -- 5
May-Day! ...

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - A Review
If writing was a religion, it shall be easy to deem 'Harry Potter and the half-blood prince' as the penultimate bla...
Table of Contents | Article-Max Directory