To Fathom His Very Roots: Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance and "Evidence" of His Literary Racial Passing

IF 0.1 0 LITERATURE, AMERICAN
Delisa Hawkes
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract:During the latter part of the long nineteenth century, actor and author Sylvester Clark "Chief Buffalo Child" Long Lance completely discarded his African American ancestry to assert a composite Native American identity. He did so in hopes of escaping anti-Black violence. His writings suggest that he believed that performing the racialized stereotype of the "noble savage" would better position him to achieve inclusion in US society, which was otherwise denied to him in his legal "colored" (read: Black) racial identity. His complex and problematic approach to his ancestry and racial identity invites scholars to critically consider how some authors simultaneously challenged yet adhered to social expectations regarding racial identification when reflecting on their personal lives and asserting their racial identities in literature. Long Lance's life and writings invite scholars to question what counts as "evidence" to prove so-called racial passing when authors or their characters reflect on certain aspects of their ancestry and racial identity. In this essay, I examine the complexities of racial passing in nineteenth and twentieth century literatures with attention to Long Lance's unique perspective of his racial identity and shows how he used literary and legal racial passing to challenge racial binarism.
探究他的根源:首席水牛孩子朗·兰斯和他的文学种族消亡的“证据”
摘要:在漫长的19世纪后半叶,演员兼作家西尔维斯特·克拉克“野牛酋长”朗·兰斯完全抛弃了他的非裔美国人血统,主张一个复合的美国原住民身份。他这样做是希望逃离反黑人暴力。他的作品表明,他相信表现出“高贵野蛮人”的种族化刻板印象会让他更好地融入美国社会,否则他在法律上的“有色人种”(即黑人)种族身份就无法融入美国社会。他对自己的祖先和种族身份的复杂而有问题的研究方法促使学者们批判性地思考一些作者在反思他们的个人生活和在文学中主张他们的种族身份时,是如何同时挑战又坚持社会对种族身份的期望的。朗兰斯的生活和作品让学者们质疑,当作者或他们的角色反映出他们祖先和种族身份的某些方面时,什么可以算作证明所谓种族传承的“证据”。在这篇文章中,我考察了19世纪和20世纪文学中种族传递的复杂性,并关注了朗兰斯对自己种族身份的独特视角,并展示了他如何利用文学和法律上的种族传递来挑战种族二元主义。
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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