The Prevalence of Racial Prejudice and Segregation in Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy

Abstract

The article explores how the issue of race present in the American society has been reflected in Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy. The mimetic theory and the use of fantasy writing to reflect the social mores and emotional attitudes is presented and serves as the basis for the analysis. The problems of violence, segregation, miscegenation and racial purity concerning blacks and whites are briefly introduced through the use of examples from the American history. These examples are juxtaposed with the events from the novels. The analysis focuses on the struggles involved in the evolution of racial thinking and shows that although the idea of race and related problems have changed, they have not disappeared, neither in the fictional nor in the real world.