Performance of social class and race in Zoë Wicomb’ s Playing in the Light and Danzy Senna’s Caucasia

Abstract

This paper aims to study the social construction of race and class in American and South African fiction. We compare and contrast the ways in which performance of race and class operate in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light and Danzy Senna’s Caucasia. We first discuss two tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT), namely the social construction of race and intersectionality. We then study the correlation between race and class in the two novels through the theme of racial passing. We argue that in order for racial passing to be successful it has to be associated with specific class attributes. In fact, we show through an analysis of the main characters and plot of the two novels that social class position affects racial identity. This exposes the extent to which South African and American societies are marked by essentialism and stereotypes. We also explore the persistence of racism and inequality in the two novels and argue that the legacy of apartheid and racial-segregation continues to have an impact on people of color in South Africa and in the United States.