Djanet Sears’ Harlem Duet engages the lasting impact of the long history of black oppression on the characters, especially on knowledge construction shaped by the history of racism. Taking Djanet Sears’ words that her play is a means of ‘exorcising’ the ideological structures behind the literary representation of black people throughout history, this paper aims to look at Sears’ work as a means of subverting the inherited epistemological structures of racism through the implementation of blues music. Following an observation of the existing binary structures shaping the thoughts and speech of the characters Billie and Othello, the paper will analyse how the prevalent musical presence throughout the play functions both as an affective means of subverting the binary construction of racial discourse, as well as a means of extending and further cultivating the tradition of “black performance” through the utilisation of “phonic substance” as another means of resistive dialogue happening within the margins of the play.
목차
Ⅰ. Introduction Ⅱ. The Ghost of Binary Structures Ⅲ. Phonic Substance as an Affective Expression Ⅳ. Call and Response in Anacrusis Ⅴ. An Archaeological Dig on Stage Ⅵ. The Final Act Works Cited Abstract