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영어

While conceding to the critical consensus that Meridian is an exploration of the internal workings of the Civil Rights Movement through the lens of the protagonist Meridian whose political awakening functions as the major arc of the story, this essay argues that Meridian is a rumination not on the Movement per se, but on what happens when the Movement is over. The text raises larger questions about the role of the black intellectual and his/her relationship with the community after a defined political movement has come to a close. Contrary to the notion that Meridian is transfixed in the still time of the Civil Rights Movement, the novel historicizes the Movement and presents us with a politicized present in which Meridian is committed to ameliorating poverty, rather than investing in a political project resting on racial solidarity. Unlike Truman or Lynne who under the guise of “race-men” or a Northern intellectual, “homogenizes” black “people,” Meridian inhabits the same material conditions as the poor. In this regard, Meridian’s determination to “be held by the past” does not connote an immersion in the African American heritage, but rather a commitment to helping the poor. This propels Meridian forward to a politicized future where terms of inequalities may be in a constant flux. As such, this essay recontexualizes Meridian in the political present, rather than interpreting it as a reflection of an unchanging and reified “past” Movement based on racial solidarity.