“A Hundred Voices Crashing Together”

Connections between the media, racism, and violence are illuminated in a recent novella, historian P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout, or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times (2020), through its unique combination of genre fiction elements. Blending dark fantasy, horror, and alternate history, the story presents racism as a contagion capable of gradually hollowing out its hosts, leaving them empty husks driven by mob rage. Importantly, Clark ́s critique illuminates the impact of an exploitative media apparatus upon social equalities. Utilizing fantasy and body horror tropes in a unique configuration, he presents a compelling, historically grounded text centered upon the relationship binding white supremacy, the media, and violence. As this article underscores, Ring Shout utilizes such tropes to illuminate the historical role of media in cultivating white violence and ensuring the continued marginalization of African Americans in the United States.

Fantasy · Great Rift · Racism · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Modern American Literature Studies · Themes in Literature Analysis

• Rage in the Gate City

  Rebecca West Burns, Rebecca Burns et al.•Rage in the Gate City•2009

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