Orkin Martin - Race

Race offers a compelling introduction to the study of ideas related to race throughout history. Its breadth of coverage, both geographically and temporally, provides readers with an expansive, global understanding of the term from the classical period onwards. This concise guide offers an overview of:

Intersections of Race and Gender

Race and Social Theory

Identity, Ethnicity, and Immigration

Whiteness

Legislative and Judicial Markings of Difference

Race in South Africa, Israel, East Asia, Asian America

Blackness in a Global Context

Race in the History of Science

Critical Race Theory

This clear and engaging study is essential reading for students of Literature, Culture, and Race.

Martin Orkin is a Professor at the University of Haifa in Israel, where he teaches in the departments of Theatre and English.

Alexa Alice Joubin is a Professor of English, Theatre, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures at George Washington University, USA, where she co-founded the Digital Humanities Institute.

THE NEW CRITICAL IDIOM

SERIES EDITOR: JOHN DRAKAKIS, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

The New Critical Idiom is an invaluable series of introductory guides to todays critical terminology. Each book:

provides a handy, explanatory guide to the use (and abuse) of the term;

offers an original and distinctive overview by a leading literary and cultural critic;

relates the term to the larger field of cultural representation.

With a strong emphasis on clarity, lively debate, and the widest possible breadth of examples, The New Critical Idiom is an indispensable approach to key topics in literary studies.

Epic by Paul Innes

Grotesque by Justin D Edwards and Rune Graulund

Fairy Tale by Andrew Teverson

Translation by Susan Bassnett

Gothicsecond edition by Fred Botting

Narrativesecond edition by Paul Cobley

Comedysecond edition by Andrew Stott

Genresecond edition by John Frow

Colonialism/Postcolonialismthird edition by Ania Loomba

Adaptation and Appropriationsecond edition by Julie Sanders

The Aphorism and Other Short Forms by Ben Grant

Modernismthird edition by Peter Childs

Reception by Ika Willis

The Sublimesecond edition by Philip Shaw

Satire by John T. Gilmore

Race by Martin Orkin with Alexa Alice Joubin

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/literature/series/SE0155

Martin Orkin with Alexa Alice Joubin

First published 2019

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2019 Martin Orkin and Alexa Alice Joubin

The right of Martin Orkin and Alexa Alice Joubin to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Orkin, Martin, author. | Joubin, Alexa Alice, 1973 author.

Title: Race / Martin Orkin ; with Alexa Alice Joubin.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Series: The new critical idiom | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018043019| ISBN 9781138904682 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138904699 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781317445302 (epub) | ISBN 9781317445296 (mobipocket)

Subjects: LCSH: Race and literature. | Race in literature. | Race discrimination in literature.

Classification: LCC PN56.R16 O75 2019 | DDC 809/.933552dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018043019

ISBN: 978-1-138-90468-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-90469-9 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-69623-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

We would like to thank our series editor John Drakakis for his intellectual generosity. His editorial acumen has played a key role in shaping this book. He has made us understand the meaning of professional friendship in deed rather than word. His support remains an inspiration to us.

The scholarly examples evidenced by Jonathan Dollimore, Patricia Parker, Terence Hawkes, Alan Sinfield, Martin Chanock, Ania Loomba, Rey Chow, and Kim Hall have helped us think through thorny questions. Lily Wong and Cord Whitaker have been both intellectually capacious and generous. Conversations with them, as well as reading their cutting-edge works on critical race studies, have been invaluable as this book took shape. Nava Abel has encouraged us to see line and color at whatever we look.

Martin Orkin would like to thank his wife for shouldering the burden of living with someone who must endure the burden of illness. Her strength and courage continually gives him hope. Professor Chloe Orkins daily messages have kept Martin in good spirits. Moshiko Grif and the Ichilov Hospital Movement Disorders Unit, Sourasky Medical Center, taught Martin how the human body can resist the ravages of Parkinsons Disease.

The co-writing process would not have been possible were it not facilitated with love and care by Joan Orkin, Mickey Orkin, and Basile Joubin across oceans.

We would like to dedicate whatever value this book may have to all those who suffer from racial discrimination and persecution.

Martin Orkin and Alexa Alice Joubin

Race as a concept is often defined in relation to marginalized identities that are seen by members of dominant cultures as other. The project to define or describe race is notoriously complex and slippery. Older attempts to fix race often re-emerge or persist even where they seem to have disappeared or to have been superseded by newer understandings. Formulations of race are also complicated by the apparent symbiotic relation, which projects to identify race appear to have, with racism. Where race is, racism seems in one way or another never far behind. Perhaps this is because the definition of race often entails an identification of difference. The definition itself is an assertion of identity. In such transactions, an impartial conceptualization of race too often appears beyond human capacity.