I really enjoyed our discussion a few weeks ago on 'ideologies' in literature, and how highly respected literature seems to be that which obscures its ideological content and asserts itself as a literary text rather than a social text. Charles Chesnutt's stories definitely have an ideological affiliation, or at least attempt to, but I think he manages to obscure it better than almost any author we've read thus far. He writes stories that are at once entertaining, poignant, satirical, and difficult, despite expressing something regarding the social reality of Black Americans and slavery.
Regarding the Tales of Conjure, I think he primarily uses the form of frame stories to obscure his social message. The frame stories of Uncle Julius plunge readers into the past, a past full of mysticism and absurdity.They entertain, but also disturb, explaining in matter-of-fact terms the gruesome deaths of slaves and the dehumanization of a race. Uncle Julius' dialect reveals an allegiance to realism despite the stories' fantastical content. Hidden beneath the extremely difficult phrasings, are profound truths and ideological positions regarding the state of American society.
Regarding The Color Line, I think Chesnutt's ideology is slightly more apparent than in the other stories. This is probably because they refrain from dialectal narration and fantastical frame stories; however, they still use satire and tragedy to express the foolishness of white oppression and the difficulty of Black Americans' lives during this era. "Tragedy" might be an extreme word to use, but I think it's a fair one: the Clayton's family's allegiance to racist principles brings forth a disappointing end: Alice loses a potential suitor. Meanwhile, in "The Passing of Grandison," Chesnutt exposes and satirizes white self-awareness as the protectors of the black race. These stories reveal the absurdity of racism through very literary means.
I found the Tales of Conjure, because they had the magical realism, more entertaining than The Color Line stories. Though the ideology is much more apparent in "A Matter of Principle" than in "The Goophered Grapevine," I found the Tales of Conjure stories to be more effective because they were more entertaining. I wanted to keep reading stories like "Po Sandy" rather than "Baxter's Procrustes" because I felt more involved in the story.
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