장르 관습의 차용과 “인종 향상” 이념의 한계: 콜슨 화이트헤드의 직관주의자

초록

Colson Whitehead skillfully appropriates the generic conventions of detective fiction in his work The Intuitionist (1999). The narrative revolves around the protagonist’s investigation of a conspiracy behind the catastrophic elevator incident in a high-rise building. However, in a deliberate departure from conventional norms, Whitehead disrupts readers’ expectations about the typical crime-solving trajectory, indicating the fictionality inherent in storytelling and a fictive construction of reality through narrative. Far from being a mere exercise in aesthetics, the author’s experiment with the genre serves as a tool for a serious critique of the black history in the United States. Employing the elevator as a symbolic representation of the desire for upward mobility, Whitehead criticizes the ideology of racial uplift found in the African American community. The novel rejects the elitist notion that individual success achieved through self-help and higher education would uplift the entire black race.

키워드