This section contains 4,382 words (approx. 15 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |
SOURCE: "The Example of 'Horace Christian': A Central Irony in Overshadowed," in American Literary Realism, 1870-1910, Vol. XIV, No. 1, Spring, 1981, pp. 60-9.
In the following essay, Vassilowitch examines the rise and fall of the white racist Horace Christian, a character in Overshadowed.
Overshadowed (1901) is the second novel written by turn-of-the-century black author Sutton Griggs. Historian S. P. Fullinwider calls the book, correctly, "In part . . . a sermon against assimilation; against the degrading effects of the white man's values."1 While overstating his case somewhat, Hugh Gloster is also correct in emphasizing the destructive role that miscegenation plays in the story.2 Griggs's essential aversion to both cultural and sexual assimilation with white America sets the tone throughout Overshadowed and gives some unity to its otherwise rather loosely-constructed plot. Nevertheless, scholars have completely overlooked a key pun, developed intricately and at length, that announces in ironically religious terms this dual aversion central...
This section contains 4,382 words (approx. 15 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |