The autobiography of ex-colored man pdf
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I know that in writing the following pages I am divulging the great secret of my life, the secret which for some years I have guarded far more carefully than any of my earthly possessions; and it is a curious study to me to analyze the motives which prompt me to do it. I feel that I am led by the same impulse which forces the unfound-out criminal to take somebody into his confidence, although he knows that the act is liable, even almost certain, to lead to his undoing. I know that I am playing with fire, and I feel the thrill which accompanies that most fascinating pastime; and, back of it all, I think I find a sort of savage and diabolical desire to gather up all the little tragedies of my life, and turn them into a practical joke on society.
And, too, I suffer a vague feeling of unsatisfaction, of regret, of almost remorse from which I am seeking relief, and of which I shall speak in the last paragraph of this account.
I was born in a little town of Georgia a few years after the close of the Civil War. I shall not mention the name of the town, because there are people still living there who could be connected with this narrative. I have only a faint recollection of the place of my birth. At times I can close my eyes, and call up in a dream-like way thin
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On which side?": James Weldon Johnson's "Autobiography of an ex-colored man
Rei'ista de Estudios Norteamericanos. n.º 8 (), pp. 33 - 48 «ON WHICH SIDE?»: JAMES WELDON JOHNSON'S AVTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EX-COLORED MAN MAR GALLEGO Universidad de Huelva Within the contex.t of African American literary production, the desire to search for an appropriate vehicle to portray the reality of African American identity seems to have frequently led to a kind of self-conscious narrative which deals primarily with a specific type of character, the so-called «mulatto» figure. in his/her quest for selfde1inition. This character is usually depicted while involved in the act of «passing,» that is, of crossing over the color line to the «whitc side.» The internal conflict that this character undergoes is epitomized in The Autobiography of w1 Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson ( ). in which the mulatto protagonist recounts his ces once he has crossed over. In so doing. Johnson directly recalls two wellcstablished traditions within African American letters from the previous century: the «tragic m ulatto» tradition1 and th e autobiographi c trend inaugurated by slave narratives.2 Both literary traditions are re-interpreted in the novel's «passing» 1. This tradition evotves
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