Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination

While critics have long maintained that American writers have not concerned themselves with race, Morrison finds that white writers have responded to what she calls the “Africanist presence” in the country. Africans and later African Americans were important parts of every national debate and question, including debates about the economy, the frontier, the addition of new states to the country, and other issues. Writers responded to the Africanist presence in their works in ways that were often coded rather than expressed outright.

Morrison looks in the shadows—where writers often hide what is on their minds—to find evidence of the Africanist presence. For example, she analyzes Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not and examines Wesley, the black character who is nameless for the first part of the book. Although Wesley is pushed to the margins of the story, he, and other black characters, are used to define the white characters. Wesley is portrayed as weak, highlighting the virility of the white protagonist. Therefore, the Africanist presence is used as a way for white writers to reflect on themselves.

Morrison does not gloss over the complexity of white characterizations of the Africanist presence. At times, writers upend their own narratives or subvert them using the Africanist