The Recovery of History as a Dialogic Process: The Role of Judith in David Bradley’s "The Chaneysville Incident‪"‬

As the winner of the 1982 PEN-Faulkner Prize1 and being “acclaimed by
fiction writers and by popular and scholarly writers alike” David
Bradley’s The Chaneysville Incident could establish itself as an important
piece of contemporary literature. Therefore a considerable number of
entries and textual analyses exists meanwhile, whereas the theme
peculiarly central within the studies is the novel’s exemplary relevance for
African-American “historiographic metafiction” (this term was introduced
by Linda Hutcheon in her book A Poetics of Postmodernism). The basic
subject of the novel concerns the protagonist’s, John Washington’s
reconstruction of his past, and thus the process of his change in dealing
with (African-American) history.
However, within this work this perspective has to be broadened in the
sense that Judith Powell, John’s white lover should shift much more into
focus. It is to be proved that Judith’s role in the novel is extraordinarily
necessary to enable the process John is undergoing for her interaction as a
persistent and sensitive lover is the key to a mutual understanding.
Prerequisites for a profound scrutiny of this claim are required; we
need to know what exactly is the way John approaches history, and if that
is changing, but also what is he able of at which stage of the novel? Which
role do racial and other individual aspects play in John’s past and how do
they influence the present?
Relating to potential answers we will go on by having a close look on
the relationship of John and Judith, especially on the kind of their dialogic
interaction. Furthermore, Judith’s part in this process has to be emphasised
to work out her key function by finding out how she interferes, how she
succeeds and why it is especially Judith who is qualified to do so.
Finally, the meaning and the technical representation of
understanding within the novel’s context should be analysed.