Module 10 Discussion Forum II: Unlikely Contributions to Racial Politics II
Rationale
This forum is part of the unlikely contributions series and, in one sense, the sequel to our last installment in the series, which was on Dunbar’s anthropomorphized tree, since it too will ask you to consider a literary work’s racial politics. As in the previous discussions in this series, it will provide an opportunity to consider how the unlikely or speculative aspects of a work contribute in particularly important ways to its meaning and broader purpose. Furo’s racial metamorphosis makes possible a certain kind of speculative thinking and, as the plot point around which the rest of the narrative is constructed, it undoubtedly the key to understanding the work’s racial politics.
Forum Instructions
The class will be divided into 4-5 randomly assigned groups. How does Furo’s metamorphosis into a white man contribute to the work’s racial politics? In other words, why does Barrett build his meditation on white racial privilege around the racial transformation of his protagonist? Based on the treatment that Furo receives and/or the behavioral and attitudinal changes he undergoes, what are the work’s racial politics? Why make use of this extended literary conceit; why not, for example, juxtapose the fortunes of a Black and a white character (or any of the other ways that a novelist might have explored white racial privilege)?
The last time we addressed a work’s racial politics, in discussing Dunbar’s “The Haunted Oak,” they were on a basic level, quite obviously, an attack on anti-Black lynching. Here, while these racial politics certainly have to do with critiquing white privilege, they are far more complex, not least of all because the novel is set in a country where Black people constitute the vast majority of the population as well as its ruling class (along with all of its other classes). In any case, a literary work can be said to have a racial politics where it takes up a stance either for or against a society’s racial status quo.
Please Order Your Post in the Following Way:
- Open your comment, if you aren’t the first to post in your group, by relating it to at least one preceding post using the argumentative twist technique. Make a claim about how the text’s non-mimetic aspects impact its racial politics. (1-2 sentences)
- Anchor your claim in a discussion of at least one concrete and specific narrative or textual detail. (1-3 sentences)
- Supply reasoning that supports your claim. In other words, explain how the narrative or textual details that you cite confirm your claim, that is, serve as evidence. (Ideally, you’ll either offer evidence that no one in your group has previously addressed or you will offer a different take on evidence previously mentioned.) (1-3 sentences)
Additional Instructions:
- Be sure to write with clarity and collegiality (i.e. be respectful of those who have a different opinion)
- Length: Your post should be at minimum 150 words.
- Format: You will post your comment directly in the appropriate discussion forum, so use the default formatting (font type, etc.) for the discussion board.
- Citations: UseMLA in-text citations (Links to an external site.) for textual evidence that refers to the page numbers in the assigned editions of the standalone texts or the PDF/Word documents posted to Canvas. If you cite a different edition or another source, include an MLA Works Cited at the end of your post.
