Abstract
W. E. B. Du Bois's Dark Princess: A Romance tends to cause problems for genre-minded readers. The 1928 novel, Du Bois's second of five, partakes in the conventions of Bildungsroman, adventure, social realism, messianic prophecy, and, as its subtitle would indicate, romance. As such, the novel provides an interesting and often misdiagnosed case study in generic pastiche and parody. In Arnold Rampersad's frequently cited formulation, the novel is a "queer combination of outright propaganda and Arabian tale, of social realism and quaint romance." 1 Du Bois's contemporaries, too, found the conjunction of mundane and elevated language, of politics and romance, of local and international settings, to be unsettling or inappropriate. 2 An alternate view finds such readings inadequate, based as they are on a constricting realist viewpoint. Claudia Tate, in her introduction to the novel's latest edition, holds that "if his critics had judged the novel according to the values of an eroticized revolutionary art instead of the conventions of social realism, they probably would have celebrated Dark Princess as a visionary work." Both Tate and Paul Gilroy see the novel, and especially its closing scene of multicultural pageant, as a model for a new black political idealism. 3 Critical responses, then, tend to be split between those put off by the novel's mix of registers between realist and romantic, and those who celebrate its turn to prophetic messianism.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call