Dissertation
AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLECTIONS AND THE LEGACY OF RACE SCIENCE IN THE WORKS OF CHARLES WADDELL CHESNUTT, JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, AND ZORA NEALE HURSTON
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2017
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100062
Abstract
This dissertation demonstrates how African American writers used literary collections as a method of dismantling the human collection systems created by race science. Specifically, I focus on the period beginning with 1896, when the U. S. Supreme Court handed down the Plessy v. Ferguson decision that was grounded in race science, and ending around 1937, when race science became untenable as an academic field with the prominence of cultural relativism and the advent of World War II.
Within this period, I consider how Charles W. Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, and Zora Neale Hurston perform the task of collecting and categorizing their own writings. All three writers demonstrate their knowledge of the power of collection as well as the problematic categorization of people created by race science. In collecting their own works, they face a type of double bind as both collector and collected that leads them not only to highlight the importance of making artistic collections as cultural artifacts but also to undo the hierarchies that come with collecting and categorizing.
Considering these authors’ texts in terms of collection and race science offers a new methodology for examining the works of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century African American authors.
Metrics
63 File views/ downloads
20 Record Views
Details
- Title
- AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLECTIONS AND THE LEGACY OF RACE SCIENCE IN THE WORKS OF CHARLES WADDELL CHESNUTT, JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, AND ZORA NEALE HURSTON
- Creators
- Joelle C. Moen
- Contributors
- Donna M Campbell (Advisor)Debbie J Lee (Committee Member)Jon R Hegglund (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of English
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 220
- Identifiers
- 99900581516001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation