Ecos autobiográficos e entre-lugar narrativo em The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man de James Weldon Johnson

Abstract

Given the current interest in the writings of themselves construction, due to the proliferation of its manifestations which are in constant reinvention process, in this article, the novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, written by the Afro-American author James Weldon Johnson, is discussed. It is a book issued anonymously in 1912, which presents the protagonist-narrator’s history and changes across multiples United States’ scenarios, after the American Civil War. Beginning with the description of the autobiography strategies adopted in it and thinking theoretically about the autobiographical (im)possibilities, its in-between and chameleonic character in narrative construction are shown, in this paper. Hence, here, the novel is approached using the theory of the autobiographical pact developed by Philippe Lejeune (2008), evidencing its insufficiency to theorize Johnson’s book, by convening, as destabilizing forces, the propositions of the theorists Sergue Doubrovsky (2001), Diana Klinger (2007), Alfonso de Toro (2004), Helmut Galle (2006) and Julia Watson (1993).