Racist elevator inspectors, consumer-driven zombies, and the sardonicism that mocks them both in Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist and Zone One
Abstract
Concluding paragraph: "In finality, addressing The Intuitionist and Zone One's ultimate goals rely on one motivating factor: progressive justice. Incorporating genre elements into sardonic dialogue about the current racial moment signifies an appetite for monumental change. The books do not hold aspirations for change like naming a big building after a famous hero, or the killing of zombies who could attack survivors. They covet the potential for real change, the kind only available through revolutionary thoughts and new ideas -- a massive overhaul in society's understandings of marginalized communities and identities. Authors of color bear witness to the lack of revolution of their predecessors, those who actively participated in public, written outcries against oppressive institutions. These two novels use their paraliterary and literary ancestors as fuel for the battles that occur between the major plot and character developments. The complexities of postmodernism, postrace aesthetics, and the collaboration of genre and literary fiction vanquish adversaries and actualize progress within the fictional and real-life worlds."
Degree
B.A.
Thesis Department
Rights
OpenAccess.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.