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Racial Discourse in James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie (1964): Drama and the Hegemonic Struggle

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Racial Discourse in James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie (1964): Drama and the Hegemonic Struggle JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 194 Jari K. Kokkinen Racial Discourse in James Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie (1964): Drama and the Hegemonic Struggle JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 194 Jari K. Kokkinen Racial Discourse in James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie (1964): drama and the hegemonic struggle Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston vanhassa juhlasalissa S212 joulukuun 14. päivänä 2012 kello 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Jyväskylä, in Auditorium S212, on December 14, 2012 at 12 o'clock noon. UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2012 Racial Discourse in James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie (1964): drama and the hegemonic struggle JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 194 Jari K. Kokkinen Racial Discourse in James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie (1964): drama and the hegemonic struggle UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2012 Editors Sirpa Leppänen Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä Pekka Olsbo, Sini Tuikka Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities Editorial Board Editor in Chief Heikki Hanka, Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä Petri Karonen, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä Paula Kalaja, Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä Petri Toiviainen, Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä Tarja Nikula, Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä Raimo Salokangas, Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä Cover picture: Pekka Alava URN:ISBN:978-951-39-4982-2 ISBN 978-951-39-4982-2 (PDF) ISBN 978-951-39-4981-5 (nid.) ISSN 1459-4323 (nid.), 1459-4331 (PDF) Copyright © 2012 , by University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2012 ABSTRACT Kokkinen, Jari K. Racial discourse in James Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie (1964): drama and the hegemonic struggle Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2012, 205 (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4323 (nid.), 1459-4331 (PDF); 194) ISBN 978-951-39-4981-5 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-4982-2 (PDF) Finnish summary The present study examined racial discourse in the dialogues of conflict be- tween black and white characters in the text of James Baldwin’s play Blues for Mister Charlie (1964). Racial discourse was understood as a system of evaluative meanings that pertains to the hegemonic struggle between dominant and re- sistant ideologies. The study positioned itself to the field of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It’s main concerns were language, power and society. It uti- lized Norman Fairclough’s (1992) idea of the hegemonic power struggle of ideo- logies within discourse and aimed at connecting this struggle both to racial and dramatic conflict. For this purpose, the author of this thesis constructed four different Readers implied by the text, the ideological standpoints of which the identities negotiated by the play’s characters were to depend on. The author also analyzed the play through four dramatic theories, concerning the ideologi- cal consequences of the kinds of catharses offered by them. All Four Readers stemmed from the racial situation of the USA in the early 1960s. During those times, the country’s white population was divided into racial conservatives and liberals, while the ideology of non-violent Christianity promoted by Martin Lu- ther King was challenged by the emerging Black Power Movement. This movement recognized the black frustration and anger and demanded whites to relinquish their socio-economic power and privileges, which caused many white liberals to retreat from the civil rights struggle. Baldwin’s text brings these ideo- logical conflicts on the level of interpersonal disputes. Crucial to the racial dis- course of the play was the creation of spaces in which its characters, bound by the context of the racial power structure, existed and made ideological choices, and the way these spaces depended on each other. Besides these two kinds of spaces, I found attempts to create spaces of innocence between the black and white char- acters in the play. The depiction of racism as a prison-like total institution also resembled the Southern system of apartheid segregation, which was only tem- porarily challenged by the black protagonist, whose killing remained unpun- ished due to a false testimony that utilized racial prejudice and the Southern myth of the black man as a rapist. Keywords: “race”, drama, conflict, discourse, hegemony, ideology, struggle, language, power, society, identity, negotiation Author’s address Jari K. Kokkinen Department of Languages, English University of Jyväskylä P.O. Box 35 [email protected] Supervisor Professor Sirpa Leppänen Department of Languages University of Jyväskylä Reviewers Associate Professor Mikko Tuhkanen Department of English and Africana Studies Texas A&M University Professor Jopi Nyman Department of Foreign Languages and Translation Studies University of Eastern Finland Opponent Associate Professor Mikko Tuhkanen Department of English and Africana Studies Texas A&M University FOREWORD I began this research officially in Oxford, UK, in 1996-97, while also attending a course there on drug and alcohol counseling. My year of study abroad was facilitated by both a benefit from KELA and a grant presented to me by the Faculty of Humanities and the Department of English in the University of Jyväskylä, with the late Kari Sajavaara as the Head of the Department, for which I am grateful. My year in Oxford gave me a good starting point for this research. After returning from my yearlong leave of ab- sence in the UK to my employment in Iisalmi, I attended a course by the University of Kuopio on qualitative research methods, some of which I also applied in this research. The beginning of the 21st century became one turning-point for my research, as I was, then, able to concentrate on it more than before, with financial assistance from the Department during 2003 and 2004. This progressive pace, alas, slowed down, due to a serious illness I struggled with the years from 2005 to 2008. Since the year 2009, I have been able to focus on this research in a more goal-oriented manner. For this, I have two people to thank for, in chronological order: Docent Michael Coleman and Professor Sirpa Leppänen. Michael, as the unofficial mentor of my work already since my pro gradu, with your example, patience and sense of humour you kept the flame of this research alive, even when it was faltering from this end. For that, I am truly grateful. Sirpa, you took on the task of providing the refining finishing touch as the head super- visor of this study, providing financial and intellectual support as well as encourage- ment for me to produce an appropriate dissertation. My deepest thanks to you for that. I am also grateful to the reviewers of my work, Professors Mikko Tuhkanen and Jopi Nyman, for their valuable and supportive comments on the dissertation as well as their swift execution of the task. I also want to thank Professor Emeritus Liisa Lautamatti for advice and aroma therapy, Norman Fairclough for an early consultation, Professor Emeritus Wolfgang Karrer from the University of Osnabrück for early guidance in how to research Bald- win’s play, Jonathan Potter for an illuminating workshop, Michael Freeman for proof- reading the work before review, and Professors Anne Pitkänen-Huhta, Arja Piirainen- Marsh and Paula Kalaja as well as all my fellow researchers from the Department’s post-graduate seminar for encouraging feedback. Mother Terttu, Brother Jukka and Cousin Heikki with your families, and Aunt Anja, thank you for your interest in and support of my work. As for friends to thank, the list is too long, if not for one: the Ala- va family, Pekka, Mirkka, Reima and Eila, thank you for friendship and stimulating conversations about everything on earth, including my research, Pekka and Mirkka also for comments on the writing, when I needed some. My special thanks for a sense of recovery, collaboration and belonging go to the staff and members of the Suvimäki Clubhouse. In fact, I want to dedicate this work to the important work done every day at the Suvimäki Clubhouse and the Fountain House Clubhouses all over the world. Omistan tämän työni sille tärkeälle työlle, jota tehdään joka päivä Suvimäen Klubita- lossa ja kaikissa Fountain House –Klubitaloissa ympäri maailman. In Jyväskylä 27.11.2012 Jari K. Kokkinen FIGURE FIGURE 1 The Four Readers as related to hegemony and violence ..................... 84 TABLES TABLE 1 Characterizations of Lyle and Richard ................................................... 131 TABLE 2 Characterizations of Parnell and Meridian ............................................ 159 TABLE 3 Characterizations of Jo and Richard ....................................................... 164 TABLE 4 Characterizations of Parnell and Juanita ................................................ 170 ABBREVIATIONS In my analysis, I shall be using the following abbreviations to refer to Baldwin’s collections of essays Blues for Mister Charlie (1964) – Blues, 1964 Notes of a Native Son (1955) – Notes, 1955 Nobody Knows My Name (1961) – Nobody, 1961 The Fire Next Time (1963) – The Fire, 1963 No Name in the Street (1972) – No Name, 1972 CONTENTS ABSTRACT FOREWORD FIGURES AND TABLES ABBREVIATIONS CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................
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