‘‘It came up all the time, like a fixation”: the ubiquity of racially-based prejudice as presented in Danzy Senna’s "Caucasia" Cover Image

‘‘It came up all the time, like a fixation”: the ubiquity of racially-based prejudice as presented in Danzy Senna’s "Caucasia"
‘‘It came up all the time, like a fixation”: the ubiquity of racially-based prejudice as presented in Danzy Senna’s "Caucasia"

Author(s): Joanna Chojnowska
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: prose fiction; Danzy Senna; post-Civil Rights Movement; racism; race-mixing

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present the problem of racially-based prejudice in the USA in the post-Civil Rights Movement era. The article is based on Danzy Senna’s critically acclaimed novel, Caucasia (1998). Being a so-called Movement Child of interracial couple, and growing up in the USA in the 1970s, Senna met with different kinds of biased thinking coming from both sides of the color line. The novel tells the story of a young, biracial girl, Birdie, and reflects Senna’s experiences. The article analyzes the different forms and levels of racial prejudice which Senna depicts in her novel to comment on the pervasiveness of the problem in the USA of the 1970s.

  • Issue Year: 23/2014
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 31-39
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: English