Predicament Of Black Community Life In Paul Beatty’s Novel The Sellout

Authors

  • K.Asiya PG & Research Department of English, Jamal Mohamed College (Autonomous),Tiruchirappalli – 620020
  • M.G. Thajunnisa PG & Research Department of English, Jamal Mohamed College (Autonomous),Tiruchirappalli – 620020

Keywords:

Explication, segregation, postcolonial, discrimination, white supremacy, slavery , marginalized, parody, racial relations.

Abstract

Paul Beatty is a great American author and also an associate professor at Columbia  University. He was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award. This paper shows the  explication and deep study of the first American novel to won the Booker prize award by  Paul Beatty’s The Sellout . It deals with the slavery system and the segregation of the past  black history with the postcolonial perspectives and racism. There is no legally slave but the  white people mind set was full of slavery. This novel says about the issues of black people  like police violence, racial discrimination and loss of history. Paul Beatty explores the issues  faced by the black people through the eyes of subaltern hero, the marginalized unnamed black  narrator. He realized the identity of black people and he wants to revolt against the rule of  white supremacy. This novel reveals the United States of race relations which revolves  around the narrator coming before the Supreme court on the charges of reinstituting segregation and slave holding. Beatty utilizes parody throughout the novel to inject social  commentary and racial relations in the U.S.

References

Davies, John E., “The Sellout by Paul Beatty: “Unmitigated Blackness” in Obama’s America” (2018). ETD Archive. 1120.

DuCille, Ann. 2012. “‘Periracism’: Blackness and the American Imagination.” In Caldeira, Canelo and Ramalho Santos 2012, 197-216.

Davis, Mike. 1995. “Hell Factories in the Field: A Prison-Industrial Complex.” The Nation 260.7, February 20, 229-234.

Rich, Nathaniel. 2016. “Paul Beatty’s Uncomfortable Race Novel.” The Daily Beast, October 26.

Rose, Rebecca. 2016. “Paul Beatty Wins Man Booker Prize with Race Relations Satire.” Financial Times, October 25.

Published

2024-09-13