The influence of the “Africanist presence” on American identity formation

In this thesis, I will explore the influence of Toni Morrison’s concept of the “Africanist presence” on American identity formation. I will use Morrison’s own approach in Playing in the Dark to expose a fabricated Africanist presence, to uncover oppression, subjugation and exclusion in her own novel A Mercy (2009) and in James Baldwin’s short story “Going to Meet the Man” (1965). I will also demonstrate how the racial division between “whiteness” and “blackness” happened as a consequence of the American dream and the belief in American exceptionalism. Through a detailed character analysis of the novel and short story, I will uncover how the Africanist presence serves as a foil to the American exceptionalist and how American identity is self-reflexive of this Africanist personae