Mixing the High and the Low in Ishmael Reed's Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down: the Use of the Western Genre as a Medium for Serious Content

ŠALAMOUN, Jiří. Mixing the High and the Low in Ishmael Reed's Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down: the Use of the Western Genre as a Medium for Serious Content. In The Marginalised mainstream : literature, culture and popularity, University of London, 8-9 November 2012. 2012.

Základní údaje

Originální název

Mixing the High and the Low in Ishmael Reed's Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down: the Use of the Western Genre as a Medium for Serious Content

Autoři

ŠALAMOUN, Jiří (203 Česká republika, garant, domácí)

Vydání

The Marginalised mainstream : literature, culture and popularity, University of London, 8-9 November 2012, 2012

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Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Prezentace na konferencích

Obor

Písemnictví, masmedia, audiovize

Stát vydavatele

Velká Británie a Severní Irsko

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Odkazy

URL

Kód RIV

RIV/00216224:14210/12:00061836

Organizační jednotka

Filozofická fakulta

Klíčová slova anglicky

the Western genre; marginalisation; plurality; Ishmael Reed

Štítky

rivok

Příznaky

Mezinárodní význam

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Anotace

V originále

Ishmael Reed is an African American novelist whose creative works have promoted multi-cultural society and the interests of minority ethnic groups. Although Reed's second novel YBRBD was written in 1969, it still remains to be remarkable for its use of the Western genre (a narrative tradition not particularly known for its reliance on highbrow content) as a medium for questioning and subverting of social and religious oppression. YBRBD is innovative it its non-standard use of themes that are traditionally associated with the Western genre. The novel depicts how a wealthy white land owner attempts to subordinate the young, female, and Native American inhabitants of a city after which the novel is named. An African American cowboy emerges as the main protagonist of the novel and also as the person who is to thwart such actions supported by religious leaders of the town. In the end, the novel documents how the power of the Church and of the wealthy land owner wanes away and how the citizens are released from the bonds of oppression. The paper examines how Reed uses a supposedly low-brow genre as a medium for serious content. More specifically, it discusses Reed's revision of stock characters and situations which subvert some of the more repressive elements of white culture. In sum, the paper documents how YBRBD uses the supposedly low-brow Western genre as a tool for establishing a more dynamic and pluralistic society, which is not a common feat among Western novels.