Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage as a Document of Subaltern Consciousness

Abstract

Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage is a classical slave narrative. By re-writing the slave narrative that looks like truth, the novel is drawn from the real image of nineteenth century. Through the experience of the protagonist Rutherford Calhoun, the novel deliberately presents the political idea about slavery, freedom, disillusionment, consciousness and the contemporary status of African American people. By inserting the imagination of history of nineteenth century that looks like truth, Johnson presents the novel as a document of subaltern consciousness. Johnson uses subaltern studies as a narrative tool to focus on consciousness gained by the Allmuseri tribe. Allmuseri are the minor group that lacks the unity of being. They are the community of black people in America. They are in search of their identity, history and freedom. Through historical imagination, Johnson presents his aspects of rebellion against the mainstream status quo, by building consciousness of the marginalized subaltern group.