Writing Race and the Difference It Makes by Henry Louis Gates Jr. - Summary

This post contains a summary of sections 1-5 out of 6.

1

Race has had no or very little bearing on the course of literary theory in 20^th century. The literary canon is now considered to contain works which reflect on the general human condition and not particular groups. This has not always been so: in the 19^th century literary theory was interested in historical perspectives in literature. Literature was interpreted according to the period in which and the people by whom it was written.

Race was important in criticism. It was considered to be the origins of man, the truths, ideas and ideals held by the author as part of the race. These were expressed implicitly and explicitly in the work. Race spans the history of the race and subsequent connected elements resulting from this long history. Texts were considered important which elevated the historical/racial element.

Blacks and whites in America, for instance were seen as irreconcilably different.

Even though in the 20^th century emphasis in literary theory was put on the text, there was some tendency to single out black authors.

2

Race is biologically meaningless. However we insist on distinguishing between different races in an almost scientific manner. In the context of this distinction we attribute different characteristics to different races. The African, then, receives an "otherness". Hundreds are murdered daily because of racial differences. These differences have been ingrained in language so that they seem inherent and scientific (such as color descriptions for different ethnicities – black red yellow etc). These descriptions become associated with derogatory characteristics.

3

Gates brings the example of Phillis Wheatley, who had to prove to a panel of respectable Boston residents in 1772 that she had in fact authored the poems she professed to have done. Without these the public would not have believed her to be the author, due to her race. At the time writing was considered the hallmark characteristic of the human and Africans, illiterate as they were, were considered inhuman. After Wheatley's book was published it began to be argued that perhaps she, and so others of her race, were human.

4

Writing was the hallmark of reason and therefore humanity. Great measures were taken to retain the inhumanness of slaves by preventing them from becoming literate. In 1705 Bosman invented a myth to explain the "natural" inferiority of blacks. In 1748 Hume wrote a philosophical treatise where he stated whites were the only civilized race. In 1764 Kant wrote that blacks were stupid. Later, Hegel stated that blacks had no history because of their illiteracy and without history there is no humanity.

5

Black writing emerged "as a response to allegations of its absence". Writers represented both themselves and their race. These writings were instrumental in the liberation of blacks. Blacks faced the challenge of writing in the white language while retaining their own. Literary theory needs to change, to adapt to account for the differences in racial background or content.