에드워드 존스의 역사소설『알려진 세계』에서 꺼낸 세 쟁점 - 권위, 예외, 정의

Abstract

This paper is designed to interrogate whether it is feasible to deal with such grand political issues as authority, sovereignty/the state of exception, and justice in the critical context of the African-American literature. There are reasons of looking at those power-related issues awry in our age shorn of grand narratives. If anything, African-American literary discourses have been responsible for contemplating the political and ethical implications about the historic changes of America. Since Martin Delany’s Blake; or the Huts of America, the African-American historical novel, such as Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, or Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage, was concerned with the theme of ever-changing identity politics in the Americas. In this paper, I am particularly interested in the ways in which Edward Jones’s historical novel, The Known World, comes up with the topics of power and ethics. First, focusing on the triangular relationship between a unique black slave owner Henry Townsend, his biological father Augustus Townsend, and his white surrogate father William Robbins, I discuss how the ruse of authority influences fatherhood. Then, resorting to Giorgio Agamben’s philosophical view of sovereignty, I delve into the way that the slave master as a sovereign manipulated slavery as a peculiar state of exception in the antebellum plantation regime. Finally, taking a close look at the confrontation between the white sheriff John Skiffington and the free black woman Mildred Townsend, I investigate why the rule by law has been in conflict with the right of resistance in the history and how Skiffington’s excessive law enforcement results in Mildred’s sublime civil disobedience.