No, We Can’t: Racial Tensions and the Great Recession in Benjamin Markovits’ “Obama-Era Novel” You Don’t Have to Live Like This
The aims of the paper are twofold. Firstly, it analyses Benjamin Markovits’ 2015 novel You Don’t Have to Live Like This as an example of the nascent genre of the “Obama-era novel.” Set in Detroit during Obama’s supposedly post-racial presidency, Markovits’ work offers a critical assessment of its l...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Polish Association for the Study of English
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Polish Journal of English Studies |
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| Online Access: | http://pjes.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PJES_7-1_4_Ewa_Kowal.pdf |
| Summary: | The aims of the paper are twofold. Firstly, it analyses Benjamin Markovits’ 2015 novel You Don’t Have to Live Like This as an example of the nascent genre of the “Obama-era novel.” Set in Detroit during Obama’s supposedly post-racial presidency, Markovits’ work offers a critical assessment of its legacy and addresses the problem of growing racial tensions reflecting both the beginnings of the Black Lives Matter movement and the most recent crisis of white masculinity. Secondly, the novel is read as a literary response to the economic aftermath of the Great Recession following the 2008 global financial crisis. The novel’s depiction of a fictitious corporate-run scheme attempting Detroit’s urban revitalisation is interpreted as a critique of the “Yes, we can” culture about to be replaced by the “Trump-era,” which the novel anticipates. Finally, the novel is compared to other examples of “crash fiction”; it is argued that Markovits’ work is a rare example of literature’s deeper and direct engagement with the recent economic crisis. |
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| ISSN: | 2545-0131 2543-5981 |