Dislocating the color line
Subtitle: identity, hybridity, and singularity in African-American narrative
By: Samira Kawash.
Series: Mestizo spaces =; Espaces métissés; Mestizo spaces.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 266
Subjects: Chesnutt, Charles Waddell, 1858-1932 -- Criticism and interpretation; Hurston, Zora Neale -- Criticism and interpretation; American literature -- African American authors -- History and criticism; African Americans -- Intellectual life; Racially mixed people in literature; African Americans in literature; Group identity in literature; Individuality in literature; Slavery in literature; African Americans -- Color; Narration (Rhetoric); Race in literature
Description: This book provides a historical context for the recent resurgence of racial division by tracing the path of the color line as it appears in the narrative writings of African-Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In readings of slave narratives, "passing novels," and the writings of Charles Chesnutt and Zora Neale Hurston, the author asks: What is the work of division? How does division work?

The history of the color line in the United States is coeval with that of the nation. The author suggests that throughout this history, the color line has not functioned simply to name biological or cultural difference, but more important, it has served as a principle of division, classification, and order. This book seeks not only to understand, but also to bring critical pressure on the interpretations, practices, and assumptions that correspond to and buttress representations of racial difference.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-258) and index.