A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman

Sultan Komut Bakınç

A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman

Abstract

Amiri Baraka’s well-known and both vastly praised and criticized play Dutchman is a primary example of Revolutionary Theater, which Baraka conceptualizes as a theater that “forces” its audience to confront the realities of social injustice, and “accuse” and “attack” its practitioners. In this sense, Dutchman is a model text of Baraka’s compulsion toward destruction through art. This article argues that the prevalent view in the scholarship on this play reduces Clay and Lula as victim and victimizer. This article aims to present these characters in a postmodernist light, as more complex and less stereotyped. Thus, they can be seen as having equally the potential to change and the potential to destroy (themselves and/or the society). In the final analysis, Baraka presents a true piece of Revolutionary Theater in Dutchman: powerful, accusatory and destructive.

Keywords

Amiri Baraka, American Literature, American Poetry, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Dutchman, Revolutionary Theatre, Myths, Intertextuality, Deconstruction

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

North American Language, Literature and Culture, Literary Studies

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Sultan Komut Bakınç ^* This is me
0000-0001-7815-389X
Türkiye

Publication Date

November 1, 2019

Submission Date

September 30, 2019

Acceptance Date

March 9, 2019

Published in Issue

Year 2019 Number: 51

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA42WG45XR

APA

Komut Bakınç, S. (2019). A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, 51, 49-71. https://izlik.org/JA42WG45XR

AMA

1.Komut Bakınç S. A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. JAST. 2019;(51):49-71. https://izlik.org/JA42WG45XR

Chicago

Komut Bakınç, Sultan. 2019. “A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, nos. 51: 49-71. https://izlik.org/JA42WG45XR.

EndNote

Komut Bakınç S (November 1, 2019) A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. Journal of American Studies of Turkey 51 49–71.

IEEE

[1]S. Komut Bakınç, “A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman”, JAST, no. 51, pp. 49–71, Nov. 2019, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA42WG45XR

ISNAD

Komut Bakınç, Sultan. “A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey. 51 (November 1, 2019): 49-71. https://izlik.org/JA42WG45XR.

JAMA

1.Komut Bakınç S. A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. JAST. 2019;:49–71.

MLA

Komut Bakınç, Sultan. “A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, no. 51, Nov. 2019, pp. 49-71, https://izlik.org/JA42WG45XR.

Vancouver

1.Sultan Komut Bakınç. A Rereading and Repositioning of Roles in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. JAST [Internet]. 2019 Nov. 1;(51):49-71. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA42WG45XR

JAST - Journal of American Studies of Turkey