The Representation of Race and Empire in Dennis Johnson’s Train Dream

• Author(s): K. Ruban ; Dr. K. Sankar
• Paper ID: 1704371
• Page: 1-3
• Published Date: 01-05-2023
• Published In: Iconic Research And Engineering Journals
• Publisher: IRE Journals
• e-ISSN: 2456-8880
• Volume/Issue: Volume 6 Issue 11 May-2023

Abstract

The article focuses on how the book deals with the indigenous cosmologies to demonstrate how metaphysical insecurities that are present throughout much of Johnson's fiction pose a threat to the very idea of American nationhood, or as the novella's title parodies, the "American Dream," in this setting. The transcontinental railroads and the colonial property regimes that those railroads both sought and opened up are what I refer to as the narrative infrastructures supporting the account of how the American frontier became a nation-state. Train Dreams unsettles these narrative infrastructures. The study examines Johnson's disquieting ideas about property, empire, and finally race in three main sections. These interpretations demonstrate how the novella arrives at an indigenous critique of the United States as a settler colonial state.

Keywords

Frontiers, Fortune, Empire, Emotion, Endemic Critique

Citations

IRE Journals:
K. Ruban , Dr. K. Sankar "The Representation of Race and Empire in Dennis Johnson’s Train Dream" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 6 Issue 11 2023 Page 1-3

IEEE:
K. Ruban , Dr. K. Sankar "The Representation of Race and Empire in Dennis Johnson’s Train Dream" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 6(11)