University of the Western Cape
The white saviour complex in three contemporary American novels
Abstract
dc:description.abstractThe term ‘White Savior Industrial Complex’ became popular when Nigerian-American Teju Cole criticised a polarising documentary, Kony 2012, in a series of social media posts. Cole argues that the complex allows white saviours to be lauded for showing support to poor Africans while ignoring the structural, systemic and often severe causes of African poverty, including American imperialism. The white saviour industrial complex is a mentality which aims to achieve maximum personal emotional satisfaction for the “saviour” through charitable acts, while expending minimal effort on understanding generations of structural imbalances put in place by colonialism and American imperialism. This project considers the figure of the white saviour as it relates to African American culture and politics in three contemporary novels: Kathryn Stockett’s historical fiction The Help (2009), the young adult novel The Hate U Give (2017) by Angie Thomas, and Kiley Reid’s satire, Such a Fun Age (2020). The former novel focuses on a white saviour figure’s attempts to capitalise on the mistreatment of African-American women in order to further her writing career. The latter two novels address the African-American perspective of how the saviour figure negatively impacts black livelihood, and the relationship between two black protagonists and the respective ‘white saviour’ figures in their lives.
Degree
thesis:*- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of the Western Cape
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2024
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
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- Carolissen, Calsey Marie
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
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- Naicker, Kamil