Racial worldmaking : the power of popular fiction / Mark C. Jerng.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jerng, Mark C., author.

Series:

Comparative theology--thinking across traditions.

Comparative Theology: Thinking Across Traditions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--History and criticism.

American fiction.

English fiction--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Racism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 pages).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2019.

Summary:

When does racial description become racism? Critical race studies has not come up with good answers to this question because it has overemphasized the visuality of race. According to dominant theories of racial formation, we see race on bodies and persons and then link those perceptions to unjust practices of racial inequality. 'Racial Worldmaking' argues that we do not just see race. We are taught when, where, and how to notice race by a set of narrative and interpretive strategies. These strategies are named 'racial worldmaking' because they get us to notice race not just at the level of the biological representation of bodies or the social categorization of persons. Rather, they get us to embed race into our expectations for how the world operates.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Introduction: Racial Worldmaking

Part I: Yellow Peril Genres

1. Worlds of Color

2. Futures Past of Asiatic Racialization

Part II: Plantation Romance

3. Romance and Racism after the Civil War

4. Reconstructing Racial Perception

Part III: Sword and Sorcery

5. The "Facts" of Blackness and Anthropological Worlds

6. Fantasies of Blackness and Racial Capitalism

Part IV: Alternate History

7. Racial Counterfactuals and the Uncertain Event of Emancipation

8. Alternate Histories of World War II

or, How the Race Concept Organizes the World

Conclusion: On the Possibilities of an Antiracist Racial Worldmaking

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

This edition previously issued in print: 2017.

ISBN:

9780823280544

0823280543

9780823277773

0823277771