Charles Johnson's Middle Passage: Fictionalizing History and Historicizing Fiction

Abstract

Charles Johnson's Middle Passage owes much to contemporary and postmodern themes and techniques, as it asks us to reconsider any preconceived notions we might have of identity, history, and historical accuracy. But the novel can also be placed in the slave narrative tradition, a tradition that concerns individual growth in spite of tremendous odds and contains an explicit political agenda. However, after reading the novel, one wonders to what extent the story's lead character, Rutherford Calhoun, does grow, does develop into a different, changed, and, assumedly, better person, and, furthermore, to what end is Johnson's political commentary concerning slavery, freedom, and the contemporary status of African American men and women. Johnson radically rewrites the traditional slave narrative, filling in a number of interpersonal, philosophical gaps whose absences are evident in the originals. His focus is varied, with interests in relationships, home, narration, and revision. He especially focuses on the veracity of written history, the connections and distinctions between what is written and what has been experienced. He demonstrates how slippery the written document can be and how it might readily be re-inscribed and overwritten for positive or sinister ends. Johnson is also profoundly interested in the nature of writing/ creating/producing. By fictionalizing a historical event, he suggests that history, once it takes form as words, can be viewed as a fiction (something which might or might not contain truths and omissions).