(Revised) Paper Proposal

Ginny Hoyle Lawrimore

Paper Proposal and (Working) Annotated Bibliography

for

The Use of First-Person Narrative in “Black Like Me”: The Power of “I”

Paper Proposal

This research paper posits that the strong social message of “Black Like Me” is made possible by the author’s decision to provide first-person narrative structure instead of traditional third-person journalism. In “Black Like Me,” which consists of a diary-like format that catalogs different forms of racial oppression at that time, John Howard Griffin uses first-person narrative and explicit personal opinions to speak universally of the severely strained race relations of the time. This paper will argue that the use of first-person narrative and a powerful use of “I” throughout the book allows for 1) empathy for blacks, 2) a complexity of race identity, 3) revelation of racist south.

Method           

For the purpose of this paper, a close, analytical reading of the use of first-person narrative structure will be conducted of John Howard Griffin’s “Black Like Me.”

References

Aucoin, J. (2001) Epistemic responsibility and narrative theory: The literary journalism of Ryszard Kapuscinski. Journalism. vol. 2, 1: pp. 5-21.

The author of this essay argues that a “combination of epistemic responsibility from moral philosophy and narrative theory provides a foundation for establishing literature-based standards for judging the quality of literary journalism.” This essay’s portion on first-person and third-person point of view will be used for this research paper.

Baldwin, K. (1998). Black like who? Cross-testing the “real” lines of John Howard Griffin’s "Black Like Me.” Cultural Critique, No. 40. The Futures of American Studies. pp. 103-143

This essay offers a critical view of Griffin’s endeavors and discusses “passing” and racial identity. The author argues that the “introduction of passing into the discussion about race has served to elucidate this risk, as narratives of passing articulate in particularly complex ways the constructedness of "race" as a process primarily dependent on ways of seeing.”

Delgado, R. (1993). Critical race theory: An annotated bibliography. Virginia Law Review. 79, 2. pp. 461-516

This bibliography looks at critical race theory and lists and annotates the major entries within the theory’s corpus. 

Ginsberg, E. K. (1996). Passing and the fictions of identity. New Americanists. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Through discussions of such literary works as “Black Like Me,” the authors of this book examine issues of power and privilege and ways in which passing might challenge the often rigid structures of identity politics. Specifically addressing “Black Like Me,” the this book examines how the behavior, dress, language, and the body itself “contributes significantly to an understanding of national and racial identity in American literature and culture.”

Griffin, J. H. (1961). Black like me. New York: New American Library.

“Black Like Me” is the primary source for this research paper.

Hartsock, J. C. (2000). A history of American literary journalism: The emergence of a modern narrative form. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.

**Dr. Rodgers – If you have this book checked out, can I borrow it? This book looks at the techniques of the realistic novel and how past writers “developed a new narrative style of reporting aimed at lessening the distance between observer and observed, subject and object.”

McQuail, D. (2005). McQuail's mass communication theory. London: Sage Publications.

This book provides information on theories in the field of mass communication, covering the major components of mass communication and how its theories relate to the “broader understanding of society and culture.”

Russell, Margaret M., Race and the Dominant Gaze: Narratives of Law and Inequality in Popular Film, 15 Legal Stud. F. 243 (1991). (2, 4).

Specifically addressing “Black Like Me,” this essay examines the “role of popular movies in replicating and reinforcing images of racial subordination” and  “analyzes the ‘dominant gaze’ of mainstream Hollywood cinema through which people of color historically have been objectified as morally or intellectually deficient, and analogizes it to dominant legal narratives that omit or marginalize the experiences of people of color.”

Sims, N. (1990). Literary journalism in the twentieth century. New York: Oxford University Press.

This book is a collection of critical essays on literary journalism that “address the shifting border between fiction and nonfiction, literature and journalism.” The book’s discussion of first-person and third-person point-of-view in narrative will be especially helpful.

Zinsser, W. K. (1998). On writing well: The classic guide to writing nonfiction. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

This book will be used for its portions dedicated to first-person and third-person point-of-view in literary journalism.