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Quote by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

“The traditional purpose of darkness in the fantastic is to disturb, to unsettle, to cause unrest. This primal fear of darkness and Dark Others is so deeply rooted in Western myth that it is nearly impossible to find its origin... No matter what the reasons were for the way our culture came to view all things dark in the past, the consequences have been a nameless and lingering fear of dark people in the present.”

Quote by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

Book:The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games
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The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games

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Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

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“From ancient Greece and the classical tradition, to the Christianization of the late Roman Empire and Dark Ages Europe, the emergence of catholic Europe, and the Crusades against the Islamic world, a nameless and lingering fear of dark-skinned people has been normalized in the popular imagination. Darkness--an antagonist born of this primal fear--is the archetypal monster in much of our literature, media, and culture. Thus, the Dark Other becomes monstrous in our collective imaginations, a shadow creature locked into place and time, imbued with a fixity that is difficult to overcome. In my studies of and experiences with the fantastic, I have found that this fixity has led to fan and audience complaints whenever a dark-skinned character moves out of his or her expected place of abjection.”

DarknessMediaRacialized Mirrors
Book:The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games
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