Visual Narrative of Racial Identity and double Consciousness in Because It Is Bitter,and Because It Is My Heart

The issue of race is the focus of Oates’novel Because It Is Bitter,and Because It Is My Heart.The racial identity metaphors in the photos in the novels show the characteristics of racial ideology.This paper argues that photographs are no longer used as external cultural metaphors,but as invisible references to racial prejudice and racial contradictions.This article re-examines Oates’racial issue writing in the form of visual narratives and considers the ambivalence of the dual identities and double consciousness of blacks in New York City in the late 1950s from the visual ethical interpretation of black identity awareness,and the perception of cruelty and violence of social inequality.The historical limitations of the harsh reality of racism make a critical intervention in visual ethics.

The Catastrophic Effects of African Americans＇ Marginalisation in Ralph Ellison＇s Invisible Man and August Wilson＇s Fences： A Comparative Study

This paper explores Du Boisian notion of double consciousness and the notion of black nihilism suggested by Cornel West in Ralph Ellison＇s Invisible Man （1952） and August Wilson＇s Fences （1986）. In order to conduct this study, the researcher adopts African American approach and shows that double consciousness and black nihilism are the immediate effects of African Americans＇ marginalisation. According to W. E. B. Du Bois, all African Americans develop the sense of double consciousness which means being both African and American simultaneously. On the other hand, Cornel West believes that black Americans suffer from nihilism which means loss of hope and absence of meaning. The paper is an attempt to compare the novel Invisible Man and the play Fences thematically based on these two theories. It then looks to find the considerable similarities in the conditions of the protagonists of these two literary works. Although both protagonists migrate to the North to escape Southern racism in the era prior to the Civil Rights Movement, they become totally disillusioned, for they are treated as the invisible marginal. Interestingly though, at the end of both stories, there remains a ray of hope for reactivation and the creation of democracy for black Americans.

Feminists＇ Culture and Ethics at Work-- A Critical Analysis

The male writers＇ intuitive gift and superb insight describe feminine characters, feminine nature, femaleness, and femininity. In the 19th century, the study of the character logical portrait and cultural traits associated with femininity enunciated feminists＇ discourse to justify vindication of rights as regards women＇s cultural anxiety, political identification, and aesthetic experimentation. Similarly, the women writers＇ imaginative powers characterize women＇s emotions either reflecting shrinking subjectivity or elaborating notion of voluntary subjectivity as regards their experiences and existence, their passions and sensations, and their self and life. The 20th century women＇s writings raised inquiry against presentation of gendered self, performance of gender, gender discontent as regards with their sex and gender, which are assigned at birth as well as also for the alignment of biological sex, sexuality, gender identity, and gender roles. In this paper, the study of the four selected novels such as The Scarlet Letter, Tess of the D ＇Urbervilles, Emma, Surfacing, and Inner Line shows how circumstances, strata of time, and externalities of others objectify woman and her domestic space; how a woman perceives her deprivation as regards her own image which seems nobody to herself due to the sense of low perception; in what way sexual difference and gender-specific practices and ideology enforce woman to chide herself in the given environment and surroundings of legal codifications, moral prescriptions, and medical prognostications. The analyses of the novels draw how woman＇s experience as living subject in the vital dimension of human existence and utopian image of human fellowship is potentially undone by way of sexual exploitation, dismemberment, and embodiment. What kind of vulnerable moments force woman to withdraw from her body and fi＇om her essence is the center of concern in this paper？ While discussing the feminists＇ culture and ethics in their works, the focus is on the essentialized notion of gender-specific discrimination as well as on the frustrating double-consciousness that characterizes the cultural position of the other.

A Rebellious Mimic: Sappho’s Literary Allegiance and Betrayal in Fragment 1 and 16

Sappho’s Fragment 1 and Fragment 16 are both about the feminine love and desire.This essay invents an original term“rebellious mimic”,based upon Jack Winkler’s theory“double consciousness”,to interpret the two lyrics:“mimic”means that both lyrics,formulaically,adhere or allude to the literary norms which are frequently applied by other male authors while“rebellious”further complements that she creatively alters the conventional themes that are usually expected within such norms.For one thing,this literary contrast effectively attracts the audience’s attention and highlights the individual voice of Sappho in her lyrics.For another,it also alleviates the hostility between genders-it is intended to express that both men’s and women’s world share some common characteristics,instead of establishing one’s supremacy over the other.

Masking“My Face,”Unmasking“My Soul”:Bert Williams’s Double Consciousness,Carnivalesque Inversion,and Nobodiness

Known as the representative figure of black minstrelsy.Bert Williams’s revolutionary-success on Broadway and in the Zicgfeld Follies created a landmark opportunity for black voices to be heard in high-profile setting in a white world.The performance most notably preferred by his white audiences was Williams’s minstrel song“Nobody,”which from Williams’s perspective was also an irreplaceable piece.Visually echoing his minstrel song,Williams’s cakewalk performance success in the 1890s laid the basis for the song’s popularity.Both the song and Williams’s camivalesquc performance blurred the color line and transcended black minstrel stereotypes by taking African Americans’voices in the Jim Crow and lynching eras into serious consideration.However,though black minstrelsy has been largely misunderstood as exclusively racial stereotypes,what Bakhtin describes as the permeating camivalesquc inversion in black minstrel performance helps sharpen and clarify the double consciousness ideology between the burnt cork blackened face mask and the soul of black minstrel performers.

Embodied Faith and the Limits of Female Agency in Randa Abdel-Fattah's Does My Head Look Big in This?

The present essay discusses Randa Abdel-Fattah's Does My Head Look Big in This?by focusing on the rendition of Islam as an axis of social agency in an environment that is excessively antagonistic of any version of Islam that falls outside the contours of the "liberal model"morphed by the Western creed of equality,liberty.Amal,the protagonist,embodies the dilemmas of choice and agency within an ideological rubric which disassociates such notions from faith-based convictions.The analysis relies on the notion of Muslim agency as theorized by Saba Mahmood,for whom the conscious formation of deeply rooted religious subjectivities is sidelined within the modern secular rubrics of self-formation.The article also draws on W.E.B Du Bois's concept of double consciousness to highlight the extent to which Muslim female bodies are caught at the intersection between religion and nation.Hence,this essay discloses the challenges facing Muslim women whose exercise of agency is tied to their religious beliefs in a backdrop characterized by multicultural and secular economies.More particularly,it explores Amal's religious tradition of habituated practices-such as wearing the veil in a hostile environment--as embodiments of autonomous agency.