Imperfect Unions: Staging Miscegenation in U.S. Drama and Fiction

345 Pages·2012·3.775 MB·English

by  Diana Rebekkah Paulin

IMPERFECT UNIONS
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Imperfect Unions
. . . .
Staging Miscegenation in
U.S. Drama and Fiction
Diana Rebekkah Paulin
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
An earlier version of chapter 1 was previously published as “ ‘Let Me Play Desdemona’:
White Heroines and Interracial Desire in Louisa May Alcott ’s ‘My Contraband’ and
‘M.L.,’ ” in White Women in Racialized Spaces, ed. Samina Najima and Rajini Srikanth,
119– 30 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002).
An earlier version of portions of chapter 2 was previously published as “Representing
Forbidden Desire: Interracial Unions, Surrogacy, and Per for mance,” Th eatre Journal 49,
no. 4 (December 1997).
An earlier version of portions of chapter 2 was previously published as “Performing
Miscegenation: Rescuing the White Slave from the Th reat of Interracial Desire,” Journal of
Dramatic Th eory and Criticism 13, no. 1 (Fall 1998): 71– 86.
An earlier version of portions of chapter 2 was previously published as “Acting Out
Miscegenation,” in African American Per for mance and Th eater History: A Critical Reader, ed.
Harry Elam and David Krasner (2001); reprinted by permission of Oxford University
Press, Inc.
Copyright 2012 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitt ed, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior writt en permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Th ird Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
htt p:// www .upress .umn .edu
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Paulin, Diana Rebekkah.
Imperfect unions : staging miscegenation in U.S. drama and fi ction /
Diana Rebekkah Paulin.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0 - 8166- 7098- 7 (hardback)— ISBN 978- 0- 8166- 7099- 4 (pb)
1. American literature— 19th century— History and criticism. 2. Miscegenation
in literature. 3. American literature— 20th century— History and criticism.
4. Literature and society— United States— History—19th century. 5. Literature
and society— United States— History—20th century. 6. Racially mixed people
in literature. 7. Race relations in literature. 8. Race in literature. I. Title.
PS217.M57P38 2012
810.9'355—dc23 2012001200
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
Th e University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to my mother,
Anne M. Anderson Paulin
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Contents
Introduction. Sett ing the Stage: Th e Black– White Binary
in an Imperfect Union ix
1. Under the Covers of Forbidden Desire: Interracial
Unions as Surrogates 1
2. Clear Defi nitions for an Anxious World: Late
Nineteenth- Century Surrogacy 51
3. Staging the Unspoken Terror 99
4. Th e Remix: Afro- Indian Intimacies 141
5. Th e Futurity of Miscegenation 187
Conclusion. Th e “Sex Factor” and Twenty- First- Century Stagings
of Miscegenation 229
Ac know ledg ments 243
Notes 247
Index 291
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· INTRODUCTION ·
Sett ing the Stage: Th e Black– White Binary
in an Imperfect Union
In 1960, the year that my parents were married, miscegenation still
described a felony in over half the states in the Union. In many parts
of the South, my father could have been strung up from a tree for
merely looking at my mother the wrong way. . . . Th eir very image
together would have been considered lurid and perverse.
—Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father
Marriage proved to be such a fruitful ground for the growth of white
supremacy because it reached well beyond the realm of romance. . . .
When societies decide who can and who cannot legally marry, they
determine who is and isn’t really part of the family. Th ese inclusions
and exclusions take place at such an intimate level that they shape
what seems natural and, in turn, what is stigmatized as unnatural.
—Peggy Pascoe, What Comes Naturally
H
ere in the united states, the black– white encounter over-
shadows the complex national and transnational web of relations
between and among the racially and ethnically diverse populations that
came into play between the Civil War and World War I. Across this potent
half century of history, an intimate relationship between a black person
and a white person was one of America’s greatest preoccupations. Th ough
such unions were relatively rare, they occupied center stage in American
thinking. For the men and women daring enough to cross the color line,
they off ered both the promises and pitfalls of any relationship, but with
the added intensity of trying to navigate sex and commitment and love
while also violating a profound taboo. For much of the rest of America,
intimate interracial relationships (or even the mere thought of them)
· ix ·