“Black Matters”: Race and Literary History in Mat Johnson’s Pym
After being denied tenure for expanding his teaching of race and literary history beyond exclusively African American texts, Chris Jaynes, the protagonist of Mat Johnson’s novel Pym (2011), sets out to retrace the voyage from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantuck...
Published in: | European journal of American studies |
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European Association for American Studies
2016
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Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11523 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:revues.org:ejas/11523 2023-05-15T13:36:50+02:00 “Black Matters”: Race and Literary History in Mat Johnson’s Pym Wilks, Jennifer M. 2016-06-02 http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11523 undefined unknown European Association for American Studies European journal of American studies urn:doi:10.4000/ejas.11523 http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11523 lic_creative-commons 19th century 21st century Edgar Allan Poe literary history Mat Johnson Playing in the Dark Pym race The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Toni Morrison United States litt hist Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2016 fttriple https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.11523 2023-01-22T18:56:59Z After being denied tenure for expanding his teaching of race and literary history beyond exclusively African American texts, Chris Jaynes, the protagonist of Mat Johnson’s novel Pym (2011), sets out to retrace the voyage from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. This essay examines how Johnson uses Jaynes’ own shipwreck—he and his crew are stranded in Antarctica—to posit the history of race in the United States as a national disaster that overdetermines contemporary social dynamics. Using intertextuality and satire, Johnson follows Toni Morrison’s precedent in depicting blackness and whiteness as constructs that are inextricably bound and that cannot be understood one without the other. Central to this claim are Johnson’s mirroring of the progressive, 21st-century African American Jaynes with his narrative foil: the pickled, ancient Anglo American Arthur Gordon Pym. I contend that Johnson not only revisits Morrison’s argument but also expands upon it; for, as Jaynes and his fellow characters confront the thorny legacy of race and racism in the United States, they must also face a future in which the country’s changing demographics will render questions of identity more, rather than less, complicated. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Unknown Morrison ENVELOPE(-63.533,-63.533,-66.167,-66.167) Nantucket ENVELOPE(-61.917,-61.917,-74.583,-74.583) European journal of American studies 11 1 |
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19th century 21st century Edgar Allan Poe literary history Mat Johnson Playing in the Dark Pym race The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Toni Morrison United States litt hist |
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19th century 21st century Edgar Allan Poe literary history Mat Johnson Playing in the Dark Pym race The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Toni Morrison United States litt hist Wilks, Jennifer M. “Black Matters”: Race and Literary History in Mat Johnson’s Pym |
topic_facet |
19th century 21st century Edgar Allan Poe literary history Mat Johnson Playing in the Dark Pym race The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Toni Morrison United States litt hist |
description |
After being denied tenure for expanding his teaching of race and literary history beyond exclusively African American texts, Chris Jaynes, the protagonist of Mat Johnson’s novel Pym (2011), sets out to retrace the voyage from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. This essay examines how Johnson uses Jaynes’ own shipwreck—he and his crew are stranded in Antarctica—to posit the history of race in the United States as a national disaster that overdetermines contemporary social dynamics. Using intertextuality and satire, Johnson follows Toni Morrison’s precedent in depicting blackness and whiteness as constructs that are inextricably bound and that cannot be understood one without the other. Central to this claim are Johnson’s mirroring of the progressive, 21st-century African American Jaynes with his narrative foil: the pickled, ancient Anglo American Arthur Gordon Pym. I contend that Johnson not only revisits Morrison’s argument but also expands upon it; for, as Jaynes and his fellow characters confront the thorny legacy of race and racism in the United States, they must also face a future in which the country’s changing demographics will render questions of identity more, rather than less, complicated. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wilks, Jennifer M. |
author_facet |
Wilks, Jennifer M. |
author_sort |
Wilks, Jennifer M. |
title |
“Black Matters”: Race and Literary History in Mat Johnson’s Pym |
title_short |
“Black Matters”: Race and Literary History in Mat Johnson’s Pym |
title_full |
“Black Matters”: Race and Literary History in Mat Johnson’s Pym |
title_fullStr |
“Black Matters”: Race and Literary History in Mat Johnson’s Pym |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Black Matters”: Race and Literary History in Mat Johnson’s Pym |
title_sort |
“black matters”: race and literary history in mat johnson’s pym |
publisher |
European Association for American Studies |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11523 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-63.533,-63.533,-66.167,-66.167) ENVELOPE(-61.917,-61.917,-74.583,-74.583) |
geographic |
Morrison Nantucket |
geographic_facet |
Morrison Nantucket |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_relation |
urn:doi:10.4000/ejas.11523 http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11523 |
op_rights |
lic_creative-commons |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.11523 |
container_title |
European journal of American studies |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766084605267410944 |