Incorporating the white shadow: The destructive masculinities of Richard Wright.

摘要

This thesis examines the influence hegemonic forces of white oppression have on the psyches of the protagonists of Richard Wright's novels and stories. It argues these male characters are so degraded and perverted by their environments that they adopt the mindsets and beliefs of the very structures designed to oppress them. They prefer the strength and agency of these processes and consciousnesses, and so internalize and reproduce them. This causes them psychological strain, a double consciousness of being a part of the dominant hegemony while never being embraced by or included in it. The psychological dissonance then expresses itself in violence, reification, or fetishization of women. In "Long Black Song," the main character's desire to participate and excel in a white economy results in the reification of his wife and his death once he realizes the impossibility of fulfilling his ambitions. In Native Son, Bigger Thomas learns from an oppressive environment to see his blackness as a disability. In order to cope with this, he uses violence against women to displace it. In The Long Dream, the main character learns to identify with a castrated corpse, creating an obsession with white women that threatens his life. Despite his efforts to escape the South, he retains the psychological scars it inflicted on him.