More than a ‘criminalblackman’: Rehumanizing the Afro-American prisoner through the circulation of love and hate in 'If Beale Street Could Talk' and 'An American Marriage'

Abstract

In light of today’s issues surrounding mass incarceration, it seems that the current criminal justice system in the United States is used to label people of color as ‘criminals’ (M. Alexander 2). Both If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) and An American marriage (2018) can be read as critical accusations against this racially biased criminal justice system, as both novels relate to the unjust treatment of African-American prisoners. With a comparative research on the effects of love and hate within the alignment of different racial groups in American society, this thesis also historically and politically reflects on the system of mass incarceration. From this point of departure, both novels are analyzed in light of the circulation of hate and an ethic of love. At first, the theory of Sarah Ahmed on the circulation of hate explains how people attach negative meaning and value to the physical differences of African Americans, through which ‘being black’ becomes merged with ‘being a criminal’. In the novels, this circulation of hate is seen when the Afro-American characters are perceived through a racialized (police) gaze, composed as a ‘common threat’ to society and eventually turned into ‘hated’ and ‘dehumanized’ bodies. In contrast to this hate is the love ethic of both James Baldwin and Michelle Alexander, as their ethics illustrate the importance of love, care and compassion between people and also ‘across color lines’. Both novels incorporate this love ethic to a certain extent, as love does not go ‘across color lines’. The Afro-American characters are mainly loyal and caring to each other, by which the loved ones are the sole reminder for the imprisoned characters of their humanness. As involved, autodiegetic narrators the loved ones are also essential in showing the humanity of the incarcerated Afro-Americans to the reader. This thesis analyses to what the extent the Afro-American imprisoned characters in both novels are dehumanized by hate and rehumanized through love and how – beyond the circulation of love and hate – these novels have an important part in showing the human consequences of mass incarceration.