Black Images in Contemporary Slavery-Themed Novel Written by Whites American: Reflecting the Persistence of White Supremacy

Abstract

This study investigates images of black (and white) characters in contemporary American slavery-themed novel written by white authors, focusing on two novels, Property (2003) and Rhett Butler’s People (2007). The theoretical hegemony of Gramsci is utilized to suggest that if the slavery-themed novel is still rewritten in the era of twenty-first century, it should have a new insight about racism and should be also understood. Three points that revealed by this article dealing with hegemonic discourse on both novels; the representation of black beauty, black behavior, and the relation of black-white attested that the white supremacy is still sustained in the USA. The change of the story composition is there, but the racist ideology kept existed in the subtle way.

Keywords

• black image
• hegemony
• slavery -themed novel
• white supremacy