Stories of Miscegenation: Fact and Fiction of Interracial Life and Art

The contemporary reader, the one whose gaze is unconsciously informed by the same pseudo-science that is in dialogue with American literature, wonders what is real and looks to the biographical for comparison to the imaginary of literature. What she finds is a landscape of images and counterimages that suggest that the real of miscegenation and hybridity is almost inextricably bound to the imaginary complex that is formed by pseudo-science and literature. She comes to the conclusion that, in order to counteract the effects of centuries of pseudo-scientific conditioning, writers must continue to rail against the fixity of race representations while both acknowledging the origin of that fixity in science and creating a new science and literature complex that privileges and naturalizes narratives of open racial identification and cross-racial interaction.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Austin-Wright, Cynthia D.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hendrick, George

• Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9912184

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/81491