Power Relations And Identity Reconstruction In Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage

Middle Passage, a novel by contemporary African American writer Charles Johnson, has been attracting substantial attention of critics and scholars throughout the world since its publication in 1990. It won American National Book Award in 1990. Critical response to Middle Passage at home and abroad remains mixed and divergent. Enormous researches have been done on Middle Passage from the perspectives of post-colonialism, trauma theory, psychoanalysis, narratology, space theory. On the basis of a close textual interpretation, previous researches on Middle Passage have probed into its themes, language, characters, African religion, oriental and occidental cultures, and philosophical conception. Scholars and critics have made substantial contributions to the complexity and diversity of the research perspective and have thus laid a solid theoretical foundation for subsequent studies, which also tremendously enriches the connotation of Middle Passage. This study examines the power relations and identity reconstruction in this novel, focusing on the way how the identity of Rutherford, the protagonist, was reconstructed as he rose from obscurity and nothingness to become a man with a multi-dimensional African American cultural identity in the racially biased white America. The experience of the protagonist aboard the Republic is analyzed and the echoes of memories are well considered. In this thesis, the perspective of New Historicism is applied to discuss the interrelationship between history and text, concentrating on the process of identity reconstruction of the protagonist and on the changes of power relations in Middle Passage. Most importantly, Louis Montrose’s doctrine of "the historicity of text and the textuality of history" and Stephen Greenblatt’s theory of power discourse are used to make the analysis. This thesis argues that the reconstruction of a hybrid identity is the ideal attainment for African American people along their way toward self-definition. Only by inheriting African cultural legacy and tradition, establishing multi-dimensional self-identification, and subverting hegemonic discourse established by whites, will African Americans be able to reconstruct their multi-dimensional cultural identity and find their self-worth in the society. Based on the analysis of the transformation in Rutherford’s identity and power relations, this thesis also suggests that contemporary African American writers should endeavor to make their voice heard, taking literature as a weapon against injustice from mainstream society in America today. The protagonist is, in a sense, the symbol of Charles Johnson himself, who has the common goal of reconstructing his cultural identity and fighting for equality and justice. No culture or race is superior to the other in this world. Antagonistic and hostile measure is not a permanent way to strive for equality and justice. The thesis concludes that negotiation and compromises are necessary in today’s multicultural society, which requires that ethnic minorities and the mainstream society respect racial and cultural diversity and extract the quintessential part from each other.