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Thomas Pynchon and the Black Panther Party: revolutionary suicide in Gravity's Rainbow

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 14:11 authored by Joanna Freer
This article pertains to the recent upsurge of interest in the politics of Thomas Pynchon. It considers Pynchon as an author very much of the 1960s counterculture, and explores the countercultural values and ideals expressed in Gravity's Rainbow, with particular emphasis on revealing the novel's attitude to the Black Panther Party. Close textual analysis suggests Pynchon's essential respect for Huey P. Newton's concept of revolutionary suicide, and his contempt for Marxist dialectical materialism, two core elements of Panther political theory. Drawing on an analogy between the BPP and Pynchon's Schwarzkommando, an assessment is made of the novel's perspective on the part played by various factors – including the Panthers’ aggressive militancy, the rise of Eldridge Cleaver through the leadership, and the subtle influence of a logic of power influenced by scientific rationalism – in bringing about the disintegration of the Panther organization by the early 1970s. Given the similarities between the paths taken by the BPP and the wider counterculture in the late 1960s, the article considers Pynchon's commentary on the Panthers to be part of a cautionary tale for future revolutionaries fighting similar forms of oppression.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Journal of American Studies

ISSN

0021-8758

Publisher

University of Cambridge Press

Issue

1

Volume

47

Page range

171-188

Department affiliated with

  • American Studies Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-01-07

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