The Chaneysville Incident and the Research Narrative in Contemporary African American Literature

IF 0.5 2区文学 0 LITERATURE

STUDIES IN THE NOVEL Pub Date : 2023-03-01 DOI:10.1353/sdn.2023.0001

C. Thorsson

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Abstract

Abstract:The research narrative is a genre of contemporary African American novels told from the narrow point of view of one character who is obsessive in their frustrating and pleasurable pursuit of knowledge through long periods of textual study. The protagonist of a research narrative is often affiliated with an institution of higher education. Research narratives are littered with dissertations and academic books; many of these novels include excerpts from the texts that their protagonists study or write. Narration closely focalized through one character is necessarily unreliable; these novels invite readers to oscillate between sympathy for and skepticism of their protagonists. Research narratives are simultaneously invested in and skeptical of historical knowledge, particularly knowledge of enslavement and fugitivity. David Bradley's The Chaneysville Incident (1981) establishes traits of the research narrative. The genre has flourished in works including Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist (1999), Victor LaValle's Big Machine (2010), Mat Johnson's Pym (2011), and Danzy Senna's New People (2017). This essay argues for the research narrative as a genre of Black novels that theorize an ambivalent relationship to the past.

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钱尼斯维尔事件与当代非裔美国文学的研究叙事

摘要：研究叙事是当代非裔美国小说的一种类型，它是从一个人物的狭隘角度讲述的，这个人物在长期的文本研究中痴迷于他们对知识的沮丧和愉快的追求。研究叙事的主人公通常隶属于一所高等教育机构。研究报告充斥着学位论文和学术书籍；这些小说中的许多都摘录了主人公研究或写作的文本。紧紧围绕一个人物的叙述必然是不可靠的；这些小说邀请读者在对主人公的同情和怀疑之间摇摆。研究叙事同时对历史知识，特别是对奴役和逃亡的知识进行了投资和怀疑。大卫·布拉德利的《钱尼斯维尔事件》（1981）确立了研究叙事的特点。这一流派在科尔森·怀特黑德的《直觉主义者》（1999年）、维克多·拉瓦尔的《大机器》（2010年）、马特·约翰逊的《皮姆》（2011年）和丹齐·塞纳的《新人》（2017年）等作品中蓬勃发展。本文认为研究叙事是黑人小说的一种类型，它将与过去的矛盾关系理论化。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

STUDIES IN THE NOVEL LITERATURE-

CiteScore

0.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： From its inception, Studies in the Novel has been dedicated to building a scholarly community around the world-making potentialities of the novel. Studies in the Novel started as an idea among several members of the English Department of the University of North Texas during the summer of 1965. They determined that there was a need for a journal “devoted to publishing critical and scholarly articles on the novel with no restrictions on either chronology or nationality of the novelists studied.” The founding editor, University of North Texas professor of contemporary literature James W. Lee, envisioned a journal of international scope and influence. Since then, Studies in the Novel has staked its reputation upon publishing incisive scholarship on the canon-forming and cutting-edge novelists that have shaped the genre’s rich history. The journal continues to break new ground by promoting new theoretical approaches, a broader international scope, and an engagement with the contemporary novel as a form of social critique.