This paper examines the system of enslavement and exploitation of man by man based on skin color in Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage and Edward Paul Jones’ The Known World. It lingers on the intra-racial and inter-racial relationships of oppression. The study proceeds with an “against the grain” reading of Middle Passage and a “with the grain” reading of The Known World in order to bring to light blacks’ responsibilities in the wretchedness of their race. Drawing on a deconstructive framework and socio-criticism, the study posits that the black man is a wolf to his fellow black man, objecting thus the assumption that the white man is the main oppressor. Deconstruction, viewed from Michael Payne’s standpoint paraphrasing Derrida, is nothing, not a method, not a technique, not even an act. It is a reading process aiming at spotlighting “a deconstructive process already existing in the text” (Payne qtd in Rolfe, 2004, p. 274). This study analyzes the authors’ attempt to unsettle the traditional views of the black-white relationships and draw people’s attention on blacks’ responsibilities in their own predicament. The article specifically discusses blacks’ betrayal of blackness during the era of slavery and also in contemporary international relationships.
SORO et al. (Thu,) studied this question.