Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 1996

Abstract

Marx's remark that history always happens twice - the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce - takes an odd twist in the case of the O. J. Simpson trial. the farce of the Simpson proceedings is anticipated by a tragic fiction - Richard Wright's Native Son. O. J. Simpson is certainly a more celebrated native son than bigger Thomas, but there are many striking congruences. The overdetermined questions swirling around a dead white woman and an accused black man, the spectacular chase scene (Bigger Thomas' chronicled in the newspaper, Simpson's on television), and the carnival trial focused on gruesome evidence and star lawyers are all part of Wright's 1940 novel. The juxtaposition of these two texts is interesting not only for the ways in which the details of the fiction predict the Simpson saga, but also for the way in which it highlights how our institutions of representation circumscribe the ways we talk about African American politics and culture.

Publication Title

Arizona Quarterly

Volume

52

Issue

3

First Page

99

Last Page

125

Required Publisher's Statement

Published by the University of Arizona Board of Regents

Comments

Arizona Quarterly is a green journal and allows the archiving of the publisher's version of the article.

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

American literature--African American authors

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

Wright, Richard, 1908-1960. Native son; Simpson, O. J. 1947- --Trials, litigation, etc.

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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