This paper rereads Richard Wright’s novel The Outsider in the context of history and theories of philosophical existentialism, identity politics, and cultures of the Cold War. From a broader angle, this paper explores Wright’s pioneering interrogation of Western knowledge structures from the Enlightenment and Western imperialism to American Exceptionalism. Simultaneously, this paper seeks both to reevaluate The Outsider ’s substantial representation of the modern black American, and to prove not that his engagement with existentialism is anachronistic, but that his problematization of Western civilization is still very much relevant today. Thus, it can be argued that Wright’s initially domestic question of race and existential critique of Western modernity are still unanswered and, unfortunately, ongoing even in this age of globalization.
1. Introduction
2. Cross Damon: Racialized yet Dissent Insider
3. Existential Buildungsroman for and against Western/American Modernity
4. Beyond Modernity or Voyage-In