Fiction absolute and ethics: Tom Wolfe‘s back to blood
Tom Wolf once more in his last novel Back to Blood (2012) has taken the issue of race and ethnic tensions as one of its primary themes and this time he has chosen the city of Miami, home to the highest proportion of foreign-born residents of any US major metropolitan area. This novel looks into th...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM
2014
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7737/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7737/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7737/1/6044-18844-1-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | Tom Wolf once more in his last novel Back to Blood (2012) has taken the issue of race and ethnic tensions as
one of its primary themes and this time he has chosen the city of Miami, home to the highest proportion of
foreign-born residents of any US major metropolitan area. This novel looks into the interethnic relationships
among the Cuban immigrants, Haitians, and American whites and blacks. Applying Emmanuel Levinas’s theory
of alterity and ethics of sensibility to Back to Blood could be rewarding since it sheds light on the interethnic
tensions present among different groups of people whose only concern is their own ‘blood’ and their own race.
We argue that Wolfe’s novel, read in terms of ethics of sensibility, with its emphasis on the responsibility of one
for the naked, universal Other, reveals how altericide and indifference towards the plight of the Other lie at the
heart of most interethnic tensions and conflicts. |
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