Deconstructing Eurocentric Representation in Charles Johnson's Middle Passage

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2015 in the subject American Studies - Literature grade: 16/20 course: Afro-American literature language: English abstract: In many ways Charles Johnson's novel The Middle Passage (1990) can be considered a subtle rewriting of slavery and a meticulous rethinking of the Eurocentric representations of blacks. Through the journey of an ex-slave Calhoun Ruthford stowing away on a ship to escape a forced marriage Charles Johnson weaves a postmodern slave narrative told from the perspective of a black protagonist to question the tropes of white superiority. In every twist and turn of the plot Calhoun's reflective Journey underlies different sites of deconstruction against white paradigms artistically masterminded to unveil significant moments of self-contradictory essentialist Eurocentrism. With a counter-discourse advocating inter-subjectivity human interconnectedness subjective mobility and third spaces the middle passage as this essay argues enacts different deconstructive strategies involving anti-Eurocentric cultural politics with rebellious Afro-American poetics