Modern Reflections On Black Victimization Narrative Tradition In Raymond Andrews' Works

In the main theme of politicized aesthetics dominated by victimization narratives,Raymond Andrews' works represent a variation of black aesthetics in the post-civil rights movement era.Diverting from a narrative dominated by race concepts and white presence,his works are particularly concerned with people's everyday lives,in the realm of which giving responses to the issues of victim identity,victim awareness and the ideological basis of the victimization narratives,both inheriting and reversing the black narrative tradition.This study demonstrates the dialogue between Raymond Andrews' s works and the black victimization narrative tradition from three textual representations of space,emotion and material culture,arging that Andrews' vision for the cultural as well as literary theme of victimization is manifested in his emphasis on the subjectivity of black victims,the criticism against victim mentality,and the appeal for attention to black culture which has been ignored in victimization narratives.This dissertation is composed of four parts:Chapter I firstly presents the victimization narrative tradition in African American literature,giving a summary and classification of the typical victim images in victimization narratives;It moves on to present how African-American writers and critics,particularly those in the era of post-civil rights movement,argue about victimization narrative tradition.In the end,from the creative thinking of Andrews,his position in victimization narrative tradition will be explored.Chapter II focuses on the space writing in Andrews' s works.Through spatial politics,the flowing space and the bodies' reshaping of the space,this part analyzes the covert political structure within spaces,and explores how the victims redefine their cultural identity by getting rid of the constrains of racial space on them,and thus subverting the passive and silent victim images,realizing the transformation from the victim to the subjective actor.Chapter III starts from Andrews' anti-victim mentality and analyzes how Andrews' works,through the reimagination of interracial family and community,deconstructs the victim mentality based on the dualism of victims/blacks and perpetrators/whites and questions the victimization essentialism.Chapter IV focuses on the material culture and discusses how Andrews,based on the post-civil rights movement era,re-examines the ideological basis of the victimization narrative from a cultural perspective.Reconstructing the south from a victimized place into a poetic dwelling place as a spiritual home.The unique cultural nostalgia displayed in Andrews' works fully demonstrated the author's reflections on modernity and expressed his longing for the reshaping of spiritual life and the use of culture as a resistance to the new forms of victimization in “progessive” narratives.This reseach finds that whether it is from content or form,from ideological or artistic,Andrews' works have unique academic value.His works,which break through the constraints of racial concepts and are concerned with the individuals' subjectivity,the heterogeneity of daily life,and the richness of southern culture,exhibit profound humanistic thoughts and motivate us to reflect on how to preserve the cultural spirit in the progressive discourses of political democracy,social progress,and economic development.