Civil Rights and Equality: 'The Known World' by Edward P. Jones
The current moment in our culture requires that we look hard at our ideals and history and the extent to which we have — and have not — ensured the enactment and protection of civil rights within our society.
On September 13, 7 p.m. Tracy Floreani, Ph.D will present on The Known World by Edward P. Jones.
Jones’ well researched historical novel weaves together different time sequences and family histories as it follows the story of former slave Henry Townsend in early 19th-century Virginia. Having learned a model for accessing success from the most powerful white man in Manchester County, Townsend works to buy his own plantation and his own slaves in an attempt to distance himself from his unequal past and participate in a local version of the American Dream. Later, his wife has to manage the farm and move forward, reconciling her own ethics and those reflected in her husbands’ decisions. This engaging novel shakes up our assumptions about the antebellum world and raises important questions about ambition, power, identity, race, and property — and the consequences that come with the decisions made in regards to them. Fans of Toni Morrison’s historical novel Beloved might find parallels in Jones’ storytelling style: rich, historical detail; a non-linear structure that weaves the present and past together to test the limits of memory and our choices in a given moment; hints of the supernatural appearing in everyday settings; and strong, complex characters with moral questions to unravel.
Popular cultural commentator Ta-Nehisi Coates calls for “collective introspection” in our reckoning with American history, that we see the direct lines between the institution of slavery, later patterns of racial segregation and “red-lining,” and the current policies that maintain systems of inequality. Jones’ novel shows that the history of slavery is more complicated than we sometimes remember. When free blacks own other people of their own race, or enact violence on them as overseers, what systems of inequality are entrenched in the culture to perpetuate group self-exploitation? When economic and social advantage can only be gained through immoral means, how can one truly find equality in that system?
More in this series:
Sept. 27, 7 p.m.
Native Guard by Natasha Tretheway
Presenter: Harbour Winn, Ph.D.
Oct. 11, 7 p.m.
The Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle
Presenter: Lloyd Musselman, Ph.D.
Oct. 25, 7 p.m.
A Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Presenter: Karen Youmans, Ph.D.
Nov. 1, 7 p.m.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Presenter: Amrita Sen, Ph.D.