Racial Politcs In Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman

Abstract

Amiri Baraka’s well-known and widely praised and criticized play, Dutchman, is a prime example of Revolutionary Theater, which Baraka defines as theatre that “forces” its audience to confront social injustice and “accuses” and “attacks” its practitioners. The Dutchman is a model text for Baraka’s urge to destroy through art in this way. The prevalent view in the literature on this play reduces Clay and Lula to victims and perpetrators, according to this essay. This article seeks to portray these characters as more multifaceted and less stereotypical from a postmodernist perspective. As a result, individuals might be considered to have the ability to change as well as the ability to destroy themselves and/or society. In the end, Baraka’s Dutchman is a true work of Revolutionary Theater: strong, accusing, and devastating.