Ragtime: The Gaze of the Other and the Tradition of the Oppressed

This article reads Doctorow’s novel Ragtime through the discourse of cultural materialism. To read it so, the writer’s discourse therefore, becomes that of the hysterical discourse which goes against the dominant discourse of the work. Cultural materialism borrows the ideas of many critics in order to study canonical works against the grain. Thus, this article uses cultural materialism in order to read Ragtime against the grain. To read it so requires resisting or hystericising the dominant discourse and worldview and shifting sympathy. This article is going to study Ragtime by E.L Doctorow through the lens of cultural materialism. The gaze of the other a key concept of cultural materialism is applicable to the novel Ragtime. The other in this novel stands for Coalhouse walker. The gaze of Other signifies how psychologically the white society looked at him and how the white society considered him. Other is treated badly by the white society of the time. He is like a fish out of water in the society and wishes to do away with the injustice and violence done to him and his fellow people. Coalhouse character offers perception into race relations in the community of America. ‘The tradition of the oppressed’ is another key concept of the cultural Materialism which depicts examples of oppression done to the oppressed. Here Coalhouse Walker is an example of the oppressed who is oppressed by his white counterparts.