Schizophrenia and Double Consciousness in American and African-American Fiction: The Case of Richard Wright and Saul Bellow
Schizophrenia and Double Consciousness in American and African-American Fiction: The Case of Richard Wright and Saul Bellow

Summary/Abstract: The process of identity formation is quite a complex one, requiring stages upon stages of self-examination and evaluation. In literatures written the world over, it can be argued that much of that literature focuses on the self and the society. Thus, it is an artist’s representation of the self in literature that makes for imaginative fiction. The essay examines the causes of the trauma and presents the protagonists of the novels under study as characters who suffer from schizophrenia. It examines cultural stereotypes and deconstructs the fragmentation of postmodern identity and argues that the authors’ cultural background influences their representations of identity in the novels under study. The essay therefore surveys the cultural representations of Bellow’s and Wright’s protagonists.

• Details
• Contents