Decolonizing the Black Mind in John Edgar Wideman’s The Homewood Trilogy (1985)

Abstract

This study sets out to position John Edgar Wideman within the genre of African American literature as a distinguished well-established writer of fine skills, and bring him to academic attention. It is also an attempt to contextualize the contemporary black male’s dilemma, exploring the circumstances that shape black manhood andproduce the ill stereotypical representations related to it. Up till today, Black men struggle to realize their manhood in the face of a patriarchal society that stereotypes them and deprives them from realizing their manhood. A decolonization of the black male figure proves to be crucial for a better understanding of the contemporary black male experience. Accordingly the study reads the black experience as a colonial struggle against systematized subjugation and oppression. Wideman’s The Homewood Trilogy is read against this background to highlight one of his major contributions in African American literature: his decolonization of the black mind and representation of black manhood. The study follows an analytical approach, relying on a cliché of masculinity, postcolonial, and postmodernists theoretical models.A set of non-traditional narrative techniques is employed in the trilogy that serve to problematize, challenge, and eventually deconstruct and discredit Western values to ultimately decolonize black manhood from colonial hegemonic effects. Eventually, Wideman is able to claim an authorial voice over self-representation as a black man and more importantly decolonize the contemporary black experience and the black male figure.

Keywords: John Edgar Wideman, The Homewood Trilogy, African American literature, novel, postcolonial theory, black manhood, black man, black mind, black experience, representation, decolonization