Earlier this year, I read Toni Morrison’s Recitatif. It’s interesting in the fact that it never makes any statement about the race of the two main characters, or any of the characters for that matter. All that there is is some class coding and the fact that one is black and the other is white. But what is “coding” anyway, in a literary sense? Well, it’s the usage of the characteristics or stereotypes surrounding a group of people (in terms of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) to imply that a character is a part of that group. Coded language is the usage of phrases or slang that is popular within groups. In a similar vein is subtext, which is an allegorical reading of a text. With this in mind, the usage of coded language and subtext is often indicative of the societal context in which a text is written. What is said explicitly and what is left between the lines speaks volumes about what one could say at the time. Racial coding can often reveal more about the reader than ...
John. John is Wong.