A World Of Myths

Edward P.Jones(1950—)is one of the most influential writers in contemporary African-American literature.His first full-length novel The Known World challenges the binary opposition between black people and white people.Jones uses the death of the black slaveholder,Henry Townsend,as the backdrop,revealing a forgotten piece of history,and unravels the destinies of individuals and groups under the impacts of the slavery system,exposing complexity of human nature under the specific social system.With Roland Barthes's views on myth,the thesis lays bare that the ruling class,for more benefits,through fabricating the myth of white slaveholder and the race myth,has implanted the "fact" of superior whites and inferior blacks to "naturalize"the white's exploitation to the black and the obedience of blacks.They even move on to allow the "unnatural" phenomenon of the black slaveholders to gloss over the exploitive nature of the slavery system.The slavery myth has turned the ideology of the white into a natural order,subduing the black and solidifying the superior position of the white through taking various measures,which has been causing the obliteration of subjectivity and diversity of black people.After all,myths are lies that cannot stand scrutiny.The real intentions behind the myths have been waking up more black people,causing dissatisfaction among them with their miserable present conditions and rebellion for freedom.The thesis consists of four chapters in addition to Introduction and Conclusion.The introduction part presents Edward P.Jones's life experience and his writing,the basic contents of his novel The Known World,its literature review at home and abroad,and points out the research angle and the significance of the thesis.Chapter One gives an introduction to Roland Barthes's views on myth,and then manifests in details Barthes's semiological system of myth and his thoughts on demythologization as the theoretical framework of the thesis.Chapter Two demonstrates that Manchester County is a fictitious mythical world filled with the white's ideology.The ruling class creates the myth of white slaveholder with the image of Robbins,and has "legalized","normalized","naturalized" and "eternalized" this myth.However,the emergence of the black slaveholder Henry deconstructs the fixed relation between the slaveholders and white people,which shows that the identity of the white slaveholders is just a consequence of artificial construction through violence,far from a natural order.White people have constructed the race myth of white supremacy by virtue of the skin color,while the emergence of a diligent black man,Augustus,and a poor white man,Travis,has subverted the "fixed" relation between the white and nobleness,the black and inferiority.The family of the female teacher,Fern,through miscegenation with the white only,has successfully "bleached" their black skin color and been accepted by the white group,which shows the absurdity of the race myth based on the skin color.The interaction of the myth of white slaveholder and the race myth shapes the mythical position of slavery myth.Chapter Three analyzes the strategies and methods to maintain the slavery myth.The slaveholders maintain the authority of the slavery myth through religion,education and surveillance.As a kind of spiritual opium,religion is used to paralyze black people's rebellious consciousness,deprive their discourse power and cultivate them into docile working tools for the slave-owners;the white not only fool the black's minds,but also make them accept the rationality of slavery through depriving their right to education and practicing enslaving education;the ubiquitous observation system keeps black people not only under their masters' strict supervision all the time,but also under their own automatic self-monitoring,which therefore deprives their thinking ability and self-consciousness,and makes them maintain the slavery myth spontaneously.Chapter Four focuses on black people's resistance against the myths created by the white.Some black people,represented by Alice and Dickinson,are not satisfied with their conditions.They break the slavery myth's obliteration of black people's subjectivity,and achieve spiritual independence and self-transcendence by caring about themselves.Love of Family not only enables Elias to find again the hope for life,but also helps him find the self again and get inner peace when he is bewitched by the enslaving education of the slavery myth.The old black community declines under the influence of slavery.However,the reconstruction of manliness and the mutual assistance among black people help the black individual represented by Augustus,regain self-esteem and sense of duty,subvert the prejudice against the black under the race myth,resolve the contradictions among black people to put on a new spiritual outlook for the black community,which makes them more unified to resistant the mythical discourse created by the white.The last part is the conclusion.As a myth exposer,Jones discloses the destruction of the slavery myth and the race myth to black people.While showing the complexity of human nature,he exposes the deceptive nature the slavery society to protect the benefits of the white by means of myths.When he deconstructs the"known" facts stipulated by the slavery myth,Jones seeks methods for the black to view themselves correctly and regain their lost self,and helps them reconstruct the racial identity and find the hope for the black race in the world filled with the race myth.Finally,the thesis points out that in the present America,racial equality is still a beautiful "myth",and colored people are still suffering from discrimination and black people are still confronted with severe identity crisis.Therefore,people especially white people,should put aside racial prejudice and accept the individual difference and cultural diversity.Black people should also realize the fictitious nature of various myths today,define themselves justifiably,maintain their uniqueness and independence,and adhere to their ethnic identity and culture in order that the black culture is acknowledged and respected in the mainstream culture.