Erasure – Article Analysis and Personal Response

In her article, Margaret Russett describes how the novel critiques the “noveau-racism” of the current literary market. She believes that by questioning the genre of African-American literature, the written assumptions of black life, and the authorial identity in the novel, Everett expresses his resistance to categorization and attempts to fights back against the constricting untruths of identity. Russett delineates how the success of My Pafology and the celebrity of Stagg R. Leigh, both fictional creations by Monk, reflect Everett’s attempt to show the boundaries placed on what is acceptable African-American literature and what are considered to be true black identities. The author describes how “Everett has been little known outside the circle of academic and avant-garde writers, allegedly because, like Monk’s, his work is not “black enough” (Russett 359). Russet gives an overview of the storyline and how Monk’s frustration with the stereotype of the “true, gritty real story of black life” as shown in the novel, We’s Lives In Da Ghetto, leads him to create a parody (Russet 359). Juanita Mae Jenkins’ book presents a false view of African American life and its use of “black” idioms is offensive to Monk. However, Monk is not merely a way for Everett to express his views. Russet believes that while there are times when Everett blurs the line between himself and Monk, “the point here may not be so much to identify Ellison and Everett as it is to question the boundaries of authorship per se; for one of the problems meditated in Erasure is the extent to which fictions create their authors, rather than vice-versa (Russet 360). She believes that questioning authorial identity is a way to contextualize the diversity of Everett’s collection of works. Russet compares Monk’s dislike of social realism with Everett’s implementation of it in many different works. Everett’s style of writing separates black subject matter from the stereotype of “black” style and challenges the understanding that there is only one African-American Experience. Everett shows in his works that in the literature market authenticity is determined by preconceived expectations. Russett discusses multiple stories written by Everett and how they portray their characters in “experimental” fashions rather than representative of the associations made with the term “African-American” (Russet 362). In this way, Everett pushes back against the white/black binary that restricts what is considered to be African-American literature and what are considered to be accurate depictions of black characters.

The Russett article made me think about the way that Everett challenges the white/black binary. My initial thought about how Everett pushes back against the binary was just in the incorporation of the novella, My Pafology. Although Russet and I are in agreement over the novella exemplifying the preconceptions of what black identity is, I assumed that Monk was simply Everett’s way to show the reader the falseness of the stereotypes. I believed that Everett used the story and all of the stereotypes in it to contrast to Monk’s story. I did not associate the role authenticity plays in the story with the supposed authenticity of the stereotypes. After reading her article, I started to consider the scenes where negative portrayals are assumed to be true. Many of the characters, including the publishers, the movie director, and the judges believe that My Pafology is a true to life portrayal of what it is like to be a young black man. They also believe that the persona of Stagg R. Leigh fits the ideal author to tell Van Go’s story. There are also instances in the novel where the smallest passages give meaning to the idea of authenticity. For example, right before a passage where Wiley Morgenstein contemplates the viable profitability of turning My Pafology into a movie, D.W. Griffith states that he likes Richard Wright’s book and Wright thanks him. Although this separate section may have felt disconnected at first, these two lines actually give the story more meaning especially for the next passage about the movie rights. D.W. Griffith is the director for the movie, Birth of Nation, that glorifies the KKK and Richard Wright’s novel Native Son portrays the stereotypes of African Americans. Griffith’s acceptance of the movie shows the binary underpinnings that put forth negative portrayals of African Americans (Everett 193). The truth of these negative portrayals is not questioned by anyone in the book besides Monk. By seeing Monk’s life and then comparing it to Van Go’s, the reader is able to see the vast differences in the “African American Experience.”

Word Count: 746

References

Everett, Percival. Erasure: A Novel. New York: Hyperion, 2001. Print.

Russett, Margaret. “Race under Erasure: for Percival Everett, ‘a Piece of Fiction’.” Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters 28.2 (2005): 358-68. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.