Date of Award
1992
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Coyle, William
Abstract
There is much disagreement and uncertainty among critics over the message in James Weldon Johnson's novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man. It has been misconstrued as a "passing novel" or as another novel with the "tragic mulatto" theme. In James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man the double consciousness of the protagonist reveals the central concerns Johnson had about racial identity and individual psychology. The protagonist's choices are between isolation and integration, the central issue in Johnson's later published pamphlet Negro Americans What Now? He believed that successful integration could occur through the arts and education. By the protagonist's revealing that he is capable of experiencing negative capability in Europe, Johnson describes the atmosphere to be striven for in America through social change.
Extent
55 p.
Recommended Citation
Iannicelli, Regina., "Negative capability and isolation in James Weldon Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man"" (1992). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1990 - 1999. 337.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_4/337
Identifier
FADT14852
Comments
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1992.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters