Race is a term that has become socially charged in our world. It was completely created and is still completely driven by society's need to classify and label others. While it may seem that classification is this word's only purpose, it has transformed itself into a deeper more effective meaning in the world of literature. The fact that the word is so easily used as a way to label others is part of the reason why Gates refers to race as a "dangerous trope." (5)
It is society's casual use of the word "race" and the ideas and actions that it stands for that tie Gates ideas to Burkes. Burke talks about how language can have a scientific definition but it can also have a dramatic action and there are many different actions tied to the word "race" such as racism, racial equality, racial bias or racial profiling. People take action over the subject of race, using the meaning of the word to justify the actions they are taking.
But what makes race a terministic screen? I believe this is because race was a word developed by people due to their want or perhaps even their need to classify others who were different simply by the color of their skin. Race is so general that we automatically view others of a different race through the terministic screen that is there race. This leads to assumptions based off of sterotypes that are completely off-base. Burke explains that these screens "can position differences of degree and those based on differences of kind," so we use the terministic screen of race to point out others differences (50).
By combining the ideas of both Gates and Burke I think it shows that the ideas based around race in today's world are completely off track, and while it may be beneficial to redefine the word and the actions that are tied to it, I believe that this idea of race is tied far too deep into society and culture to ignore it.
I totally agree that race can be seen as a terministic screen because of the way it has been used to categorize people and to view people predominantly based on assumptions and stereotypes because of the way they look. I think the same connections you have made can also be related to Foucault's author function when examining race and literature specifically. Because people view each other through the terministic screen of race, we also view authors the same way. When we notice an author's name as belonging to a particular racial minority, we may have pre-conceived notions about them and, even if these notions are not negative or racist in nature, they can still alter the way we derive meaning from the text. The meaning we ultimately gather can be vastly different based on the lens (or screen) we view the author through. For example, a vague poem about freedom can be assumed to be able slavery if we know an African American person wrote it whereas we may assume it is about sexism if we know a woman wrote it. This doesn't exactly make either derived meaning "bad" or "wrong" but they are different meanings and the author function, when combined with terministic screens and stereotypes, can obscure the real intended meaning of a text.
ReplyDelete-Kayla Goldstein
This is really interesting to bring up, it reminds me of why some authors decide to use pen names. Also, when you speak about how race has become a terministic screen, it's interesting to think about how Burke spoke about these screens as rhetorical action, or symbolic action. It's like, we apply these screens to ideas such as race and in turn are viewing all of the actions of those people through that screen. So everything is clouded by our perceived idea or notion of what someone is or how the act.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting to bring up, it reminds me of why some authors decide to use pen names. Also, when you speak about how race has become a terministic screen, it's interesting to think about how Burke spoke about these screens as rhetorical action, or symbolic action. It's like, we apply these screens to ideas such as race and in turn are viewing all of the actions of those people through that screen. So everything is clouded by our perceived idea or notion of what someone is or how the act.
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