Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada
Postmodernism has as its major tenet the eradication of master-narratives in favor of marginalized voices. In so doing, it puts forward various strategies which, though different in methodology, are all critical of the dominant exclusionary discourses. Parodic mimicry is one of these subversive s...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2017
|
| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11780/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11780/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11780/1/17444-63595-1-PB.pdf |
| id |
ukm-11780 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
eprints |
| spelling |
ukm-117802018-06-28T07:50:24Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11780/ Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada Ramin, Zohreh Roshnavand, Farshid Nowrouzi Postmodernism has as its major tenet the eradication of master-narratives in favor of marginalized voices. In so doing, it puts forward various strategies which, though different in methodology, are all critical of the dominant exclusionary discourses. Parodic mimicry is one of these subversive strategies which allows the anti-establishment artist to employ the discriminatory discursive practices and skillfully turn them on their heads. African American novelist Ishmael Reed adopts the postmodern technique of mimicry to severely criticize and disrupt the racist structure of the United States. In his “resistant” slave narrative Flight to Canada (1976), he takes to task the traditional historiography, showing how a so-called antislavery novel like Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin employs racial essentialism to reinforce the stereotypical representations of blacks and distort history to the benefit of white dominators. Through a parody of Stowe’s canonical work, Reed’s novel provides a space for the black consciousness to serve as an agentic subject and re-narrate the history of slavery, abolitionism and the Civil War. This paper aims to depict how Reed manages to rewrite the history of slavery in Flight to Canada by mimicking Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017-11 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11780/1/17444-63595-1-PB.pdf Ramin, Zohreh and Roshnavand, Farshid Nowrouzi (2017) Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 17 (4). pp. 244-257. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1043 |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Local University |
| institution |
Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia |
| building |
UKM Institutional Repository |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| description |
Postmodernism has as its major tenet the eradication of master-narratives in favor of
marginalized voices. In so doing, it puts forward various strategies which, though different in
methodology, are all critical of the dominant exclusionary discourses. Parodic mimicry is one
of these subversive strategies which allows the anti-establishment artist to employ the
discriminatory discursive practices and skillfully turn them on their heads. African American
novelist Ishmael Reed adopts the postmodern technique of mimicry to severely criticize and
disrupt the racist structure of the United States. In his “resistant” slave narrative Flight to
Canada (1976), he takes to task the traditional historiography, showing how a so-called antislavery
novel like Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin employs racial essentialism to
reinforce the stereotypical representations of blacks and distort history to the benefit of white
dominators. Through a parody of Stowe’s canonical work, Reed’s novel provides a space for
the black consciousness to serve as an agentic subject and re-narrate the history of slavery,
abolitionism and the Civil War. This paper aims to depict how Reed manages to rewrite the
history of slavery in Flight to Canada by mimicking Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. |
| format |
Article |
| author |
Ramin, Zohreh Roshnavand, Farshid Nowrouzi |
| spellingShingle |
Ramin, Zohreh Roshnavand, Farshid Nowrouzi Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada |
| author_facet |
Ramin, Zohreh Roshnavand, Farshid Nowrouzi |
| author_sort |
Ramin, Zohreh |
| title |
Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada |
| title_short |
Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada |
| title_full |
Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada |
| title_fullStr |
Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Mimicry of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada |
| title_sort |
mimicry of stowe’s uncle tom’s cabin and the formation of resistant slave narrative in ishmael reed’s flight to canada |
| publisher |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11780/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11780/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11780/1/17444-63595-1-PB.pdf |
| first_indexed |
2023-09-18T20:01:07Z |
| last_indexed |
2023-09-18T20:01:07Z |
| _version_ |
1777406855490830336 |