Melanctha
What initially began as QED, a short story about a queer relationship between two white women, transformed into a story about heterosexual relationship with black characters, and in doing so, substitutes different types of "otherness." Stein writes about a race other than her own to achieve experimentation. Indeed, she viewed blackness as an artistic aesthetic, similarly to how Picasso appropriated African masks in his own work.
"Her white training had only made for habits, not for nature. Rose had the simple, promiscuous unmorality of the black people."
Racial essentialism is present throughout the story, as Stein makes sweeping statements about black people and associates positive characteristics with lighter shades of skin. Indeed, James Herbert's evil characteristics are closely tied with his darkness: "... the way she had of saying things that were very nasty to a brutal black man who knew nothing."
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