Power, Painting, and Poetry: Mixed-Race Ekphrasis in Natasha Trethewey's Thrall

Abstract

Abstract: This article contributes to scholarly conversations about ekphrasis by combining the field of mixed-race studies with ekphrastic concerns in a term I have coined "mixed-race ekphrasis." The ekphrastic strategy employed by Natasha Trethewey in her poetry might most aptly be termed mixed-race ekphrasis, and thus I will unpack this term through close readings of her book of poetry Thrall (2012). In particular, Trethewey's renderings of the historical art form of Mexican casta paintings connect issues of mixed-race identity across the visual and the textual and encourage links between nationalized and historical conceptions of race. Despite being produced hundreds of years ago, these paintings still reflect the social categorization and hegemonic power in current race relations and notions of white supremacy. I argue that Trethewey uses mixed-race ekphrasis in her casta painting poems to reclaim the agency of (self-)representation of mixed-race people by (re)negotiating race-related power relationships and critically addressing mixed-race classifications.