Research Outline

Research Outline and (Updated) Annotated Bibliography

for

The Use of First-Person Narrative in ‘Black Like Me’: The Power of ‘I’

By

Ginny Hoyle Lawrimore

Introduction:

Why 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. Explanation of “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 South. Includes a review of the relevant literature on first-person vs. third-person narrative as well as a look at the literature on the merits of “Black Like Me” and its use of first-person narrative.

RQ: Why is the use of first-person narrative in “Black Like Me” more suited to the overarching goals of the author than traditional third-person narrative?

How this investigation into the use of power behind first-person narrative in “Black Like Me” is an important link to the revolutionary art of new journalism. How this book is representative of the power of first-person narrative and why it was important to the field at the time and continues to serve as an example of powerful first-person narrative. This specific argument using this piece of literary journalism has not been made prior, and should contribute to the field in its application of the power of first-person narration in literary journalism.

Literature Review:

Use of multiple academic sources to demonstrate the profound difference in the roles of both first-person and third-person in literary journalism. An explanation of the specificities of “Black Like Me” and its particular need for first-person narrative by Griffin. Why 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 in John Howard Griffin’s “Black Like Me.”

Results:

Explanation of what was discovered in the analytical reading of first-person narrative in “Black Like Me.”

Discussion and Argument:

Analysis of what results of paper demonstrate and what further research still needs to be done on first-person vs. third-person narrative in the field.

(Updated) References

Abbott, H. P. (2008). The Cambridge introduction to narrative. Cambridge introductions to literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This book outlines the differences between the use of first-person and third-person narrative, arguing that there is a link between the two and introduces the concept of “external narrator.”

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.”

Bertens, J. W. (2008). Literary theory: The basics. London: Taylor & Francis.

This book argues the merits of using first-person or third-person narrative and discusses the relation of both between narrator and character.

Bonazzi, R. (1997). Man in the mirror: John Howard Griffin and the story of Black Like Me. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books.

This book provides an in-depth look at Griffin and the journey that led to his experiment and “provides a fascinating look at the roots of a book that galvanized America, and offers reflections on why, after all these years, this work retains its astonishing impact."

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.

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.”

Hatch, J. A., & Wisniewski, R. (1995). Life history and narrative. Qualitative studies series, 1. London: Falmer Press.

This book discusses the stigma of first-person narration in literary journalism, but uses Thomas Wolfe to argue the ethics of not admitting to first-person use by the reporter.

Kennedy, B. (2008). ‘Black Like Me,’ but not quite like a presidential candidate remembers. Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

This article offers some relevant facts on the book’s popularity and use in teaching. For example, the follow excerpt states: “The book has sold 11 million copies in 15 languages … Readers still buy more than 100 copies every day, many for high school or college literature courses.”

Kleege, G. (2007). The strange life and times of John Howard Griffin. Raritan: A Quarterly Review. 26, 4. pp. 96-112.

This article discusses Griffin’s writings about the ten years he was blind and also reveals “other facets of an unusual life and some clues to the thinking that brought him to conduct the Black Like me experiment in which he provides an account of the six weeks he spent disguised as an African American traveling through the Deep South.”

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.”

Sharpe, E. (1989). The man who changed his skin. American Heritage Magazine. 40, 1. Retrieved October 8, 2010, from: http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1989/1/1989_1_44.shtml

This article outlines the goals of “Black Like Me” and offers an in-depth history of its author, John Howard Griffin. This also includes a reference to the book’s “passionate firstperson prose [that] brought home to millions of American whites the misery and injustice daily endured by American blacks.”

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.

Stanzel, F. K. (1984). A theory of narrative. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press.

This book outlines the uses of first-person and third-person narrative, arguing that the main difference lies in the manner in which the narrator views the events of a story.

Whitt, J. (2008). Settling the borderland: Other voices in literary journalism. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.

This book discusses the use of first- and third-person narration in literary journalism and the art of moving from first to third.

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.