Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Contemporary African-American Fiction, language: English, abstract: As the winner of the 1982 PEN-Faulkner Prize1 and being acclaimed by

fiction writers and by popular and scholarly writers alike David

Bradleys The Chaneysville Incident could establish itself as an important

piece of contemporary literature. Therefore a considerable number of

entries and textual analyses exists meanwhile, whereas the theme

peculiarly central within the studies is the novels exemplary relevance for

AfricanAmerican historiographic metafiction (this term was introduced

by Linda Hutcheon in her book A Poetics of Postmodernism). The basic

subject of the novel concerns the protagonists, John Washingtons

reconstruction of his past, and thus the process of his change in dealing

with (African-American) history.

However, within this work this perspective has to be broadened in the

sense that Judith Powell, Johns white lover should shift much more into

focus. It is to be proved that Judiths role in the novel is extraordinarily

necessary to enable the process John is undergoing for her interaction as a

persistent and sensitive lover is the key to a mutual understanding.

Prerequisites for a profound scrutiny of this claim are required; we

need to know what exactly is the way John approaches history, and if that

is changing, but also what is he able of at which stage of the novel? Which

role do racial and other individual aspects play in Johns past and how do

they influence the present?

Relating to potential answers we will go on by having a close look on

the relationship of John and Judith, especially on the kind of their dialogic

interaction. Furthermore, Judiths part in this process has to be emphasised

to work out her key function by finding out how she interferes, how she

succeeds and why it is especially Judith who is qualified to do so.

Finally, the meaning and the technical representation of

understanding within the novels context should be analysed.