Object

Title: White pole dilemma in James Baldwin`s "Another Country"

Contributor:

Łobodziec, Agnieszka - red. nauk. ; Fondo, Blossom N. - red. nauk.

Group publication title:

Scripta Humana, 12

Abstract:

In his essay collection entitled "The Cross Of Redemption", James Baldwin pens, "There are Poles: in Warsaw (where they would like us to be friends) and in Chicago (where because they are white we are enemies). [?] It bears terrifying witness to what happened to everyone who got here, and paid the price of the ticket. The price was to become <white>. No one was white before he/she came to America". ; These words testify to the complex phenomenon of Polish redefinition of identity that specific racialized American environment incites. Polish immigrants undergo white racial identity development, the stages of which Helms terms as Contact, Disintegration, Reintegration, Pseudo-Independent, Immersion/Emersion, and Autonomy, each encompassing individual attempt to Defie one`s place amidst predominantly black/white racial dynamics. ; The process evokes a broad range of emotions towards one`s self and the black other. Polish-American might feel confused and puzzled upon first encounter of strict racialism, anxious about being forced to adhere to a racial group, guilty of being a representative of white race (the epitome of oppressive power structure), superior over black people, or proud of being white but eager to confront racism. ; This constitutes an emotional and attitudinal dilemma that a character Richard Silenski in Baldwin`s novel "Another Country" faces. The objective of this paper is to estimate what stage of white racial identity development the character attains and in what way Baldwin envisions the American city as a specific cultural environment that compels immigrants to redefine their identities over against racialized categorization.

Publisher:

Zielona Góra: Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

oai:zbc.uz.zgora.pl:78197

Pages:

107-119

Source:

Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego: Seria Scripta Humana, tom 12

Language:

eng

Rights:

Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego

Objects

Similar

This page uses 'cookies'. More information