RACE, CONJURE AND THE AMERICAN SOUTH IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN SOUTH: A STUDY OF SELECT STORIES FROM CHARLES W CHESNUTT’S THE CONJURE WOMAN

Sri Suman Banerjee

doi:10.29121/shodhkosh.v4.i2.2023.4984

Authors

Sri Suman Banerjee Assistant Professor in English (WBES), Krishnagar Government College, Krishnagar, Nadia, West Bengal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v4.i2.2023.4984

Keywords:

Conjure, Subversion, Ecological Concerns, Utilitarian Philosophy

Abstract [English]

Charles Chesnutt’s short-story collection The Conjure Woman looks back at America’s plantation South during the antebellum days, through stories narrated by African American ex-slave Julius. Help from a conjure women is sought by the white masters for protecting their property and by the slaves for salvaging basic humanity. However, the present owner of the plantation believes Julius’ stories to be purpose-driven and irrational.
This paper attempts to demonstrate how conjure becomes a weapon with subversive potential in saving the lives of African Americans during and after slavery. Another crucial endeavour of this paper will be to delineate between the African American and the white American, based on their respective attitudes towards nature, borne out during the act of telling of these stories.

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