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    Solving the ‘Mystery’ of Blackness through African American Detective Fiction: Pauline Hopkins’ and Rudolph Fisher’s Intervention in a White Tradition

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    Available after: 2019-05-31 (646.3Kb)
    Issue Date
    2017-05-31
    Author
    Dennis, Megan
    Publisher
    University of Kansas
    Format
    68 pages
    Type
    Thesis
    Degree Level
    M.A.
    Discipline
    English
    Rights
    Copyright held by the author.
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    Abstract
    This project investigates two early works of African American detective fiction, Pauline Hopkins’ Hagar’s Daughter and Rudolph Fisher’s The Conjure-Man Dies, and the ways in which these writers intervene in a white-dominated tradition to expose constructions of race. As these writers work from and modify models of detective fiction, to use Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s term, they “signify” upon detective tropes to establish African American subjectivity and promote racial equality. Chapter 1 examines Fisher’s appropriation and disruption of the Holmesian tradition, particularly through his use of multiple detectives (5), a liminal character in N’gana Frimbo, masking, and doubling to question racial categorization and Western systems of knowledge. Chapter 2 discusses Hopkins’ text as a place of resistance for African American women, as well as its deviation from a mystery tradition that is strikingly similar to Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson. Hopkins employs doubling, “passing” characters, and a complex narrative to illuminate constructions of both race and gender. This project demonstrates Hopkins’ and Fisher’s texts ultimately challenge Western pre-conceptions of African Americans that historically relegate them to positions of inferiority, exposing systems of injustice, while simultaneously creating space for African American subjectivity.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27788
    Collections
    • English Dissertations and Theses [450]
    • Theses [3825]

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
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    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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