2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Cultural Study of Autobiographical Writing and the Making of the Black Self
| Project/Area Number |
15520186
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | KYUSHU UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
KOTANI Koji Kyushu University, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, Professor, 大学院・言語文化研究院, 教授 (40127824)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | J.W.Johnson / Richard Wright / Ernest Gaines / Ralph Ellison / black autobiography / double consciousness / disguise |
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| Research Abstract |
I published a research project report entitled A Cultural Study of Autobiographical Writing and the Making of the Black Self, which consists of the following four essays.
1."J.W.Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man and ‘Double Consciousness,'" published in the nineth volume of The Studies of Languages and Cultures Library (Kyushu University), investigates how this fiction disguised as autobiography reflects what W.E.B.Du Bois called ‘double consciousness,' focusing on the double structure of its plot development and the narrator-hero's sense of disguise.
2."Richard Wright's Black Boy and the Writing of Autobiography," which appeared newly in this project report, analyses how Wright constructs his self-portrait as a man who fights with the white world with his weapon of language and points out that his self formation parallels the process of writing his own autobiography.
3."Rewriting Southern History : Ernest Gaines's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," a revised version of my earlier essay with the same title, discusses Gaines's skilful use of the framework of fictional autobiography in his attempt to rewrite Southern history from an African-American point of view.
4."Some Notes on Ralph Ellison" reveals how Ellison borrows some episodes from Wright's Black Boy and, as it were, deconstructs the latter's straight, passionate, and naturalistic narrative discourse.
In addition to these four essays, I wrote essays about Faulkner, Tate, and Lytle during my research on this theme of autobiographical writing and the making of the black self, namely, "Faulkner, Modernism, and Historical Consciousness," "Allen Tate's The Fathers and the South," and "Andrew Lytle and the Decline of the Old South." They shed some light, even if indirectly, on my project by dealing with the white world that forms the very background of the writings of the black writers taken up in this research.
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