“Imagined Spaces” in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad
Location
Janet Ayers Academic Center, JAAC 4094
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
18-9-2019 2:00 PM
Description
Although the moon landing represented “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” space exploration in America took place alongside the more turbulent Civil Rights Movement in this country. While the moon walk was ostensibly a reflection of the American spirit of exploration, the search for freedom, and the culmination of Manifest Destiny, America was also a place where that journey was more available to some than others. Using postmodern tropes of space exploration (time travel, imagined spaces, and the American Dream), Whitehead interrogates the systems of oppression woven into the fabric of America, the nature of history and time, and what it means to be human in America.
Recommended Citation
Trout, Sue and Kuryla, Peter, "“Imagined Spaces” in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad" (2019). Humanities Symposium. 16.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2019/2019/16
“Imagined Spaces” in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad
Janet Ayers Academic Center, JAAC 4094
Although the moon landing represented “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” space exploration in America took place alongside the more turbulent Civil Rights Movement in this country. While the moon walk was ostensibly a reflection of the American spirit of exploration, the search for freedom, and the culmination of Manifest Destiny, America was also a place where that journey was more available to some than others. Using postmodern tropes of space exploration (time travel, imagined spaces, and the American Dream), Whitehead interrogates the systems of oppression woven into the fabric of America, the nature of history and time, and what it means to be human in America.
Comments
Convocation Credit: Society and the Arts & Sciences