Perpetual Tipping Points: Unnatural Narratology, Liminality, and Race in Colson Whitehead’s Zone One

Jaya Shrivastava

doi:10.18778/2196-8403.2025.04

Autor/innen

Jaya Shrivastava National Institute of Technology Srinagar https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3491-7285

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2196-8403.2025.04

Schlagwörter:

Colson Whitehead, unnatürliche Narratologie, rekursive Zeitlichkeit, rassenbedingtes Trauma, postapokalyptische Fiktion, Verfremdung

Abstract

Colson Whitehead’s Zone One unterläuft die Vorstellung eines historischen Bruchs, indem der Roman apokalyptische Konventionen destabilisiert und die binären Gegensätze von Vergangenheit/Gegenwart, Leben/Tod sowie Fortschritt/Stagnation auflöst. Unter Rückgriff auf Jan Albers unnatürliche Narratologie und Šklovskijs Konzept der Verfremdung argumentiert dieser Aufsatz, dass der Roman Überleben nicht als Erneuerung, sondern als rekursive Trägheit neu rahmt. Der Beitrag greift zudem das Konzept fortwährender Kipppunkte auf, um zu zeigen, wie die Erzählung durch zyklische Zeitlichkeit, bürokratische Monotonie und rassenbedingte Aufschiebung einen Abschluss verweigert und so das Fortbestehen systemischer Fehlstrukturen in einer zombifizierten amerikanischen Landschaft offenlegt. Zone One wird damit zu einer gespenstischen Reflexion über Trauma, Rasse und die Illusion von Transformation im Gefolge des Zusammenbruchs.

Autor/innen-Biografie

Jaya Shrivastava, National Institute of Technology Srinagar

Is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences & Management at the National Institute of Technology Srinagar (J&K, India). She earned her Ph.D. in English Literature from IIT Indore, specializing in cognitive narratology and the works of Colson Whitehead. Her research spans contemporary African American literature, narratology, and cognitive poetics. She has published in journals like Asiatic and ANQ and presented at MIT and Durham University. Her work explores the intersections of narrative, cognition, and cultural studies, contributing to interdisciplinary literary discourse.

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